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THE KINDERGARTEN 

IN 

AMERICAN EDUCATION 



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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



/ I 




Mrs. Carl Schurz. 
The first kindergartner in the United States. 



THE KINDERGARTEN 

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 



BY 



NINA C. VANDEWALKER, B.L., M.Pd. 

DIRECTOR OF KINDERGARTEN TRAINING DEPARTMENT, MILWAUKEE 

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. FORMERLY CRITIC TEACHER IN 

MICHIGAN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, AND TEACHER 

OF METHODS IN WHITEWATER STATE 

NORMAL SCHOOL 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1908 

All rights reserved 



(LIBRARY of CONGRESS? 
1 wo Copies deceive ] 






MAR I7i 908 

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Copyright, 1908, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1908. 



Norfoooli $wss 

J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



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FOREWORD 

Wherever the democratic idea has emerged during 
the past century it has been accompanied by certain 
movements which have tended to anchor and hold it fast. 
Of all such social phenomena the kindergarten has been 
one of the most interesting and enduring. 

German thinkers had been for half a century consciously 
imaging the universal ideals of freedom and unity in their 
literature, philosophy, and art. " The Faust," " The Ode 
to Joy," " The Ninth Symphony," and Novalis' "Blue 
Flower " were embodiments of that national spirit which 
had been inarticulate for two centuries. At last the Idee 
craved political expression and midway down the century 
all Europe was stirred by spirited revolutions. These 
revealed the extent to which men's hearts were reanimated 
with courage and humanitarian purpose. New social 
programs were offered by patriots and freethinkers to 
the several governments under agitation. For the most 
part these were rejected or proscribed, and their authors 
cast out across the waters, only to propagate and quicken 
the democratic idea wherever they were received. The 
United States being made by and for such as these, they 
came from Germany, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, and 
Bohemia with the ideal of liberty more consciously en- 
throned in their minds than ever before. 



VI FOREWORD 

In spite of the enforced exodus and immediate failures, 
a new ideal had been made to shine out before men, and 
they now centered their hope and faith upon schemes of 
reconstruction by means of child education and child 
preservation. It was then that the kindergarten was 
reached out for by the rational-minded, more or less well 
understanding its remedial nature. An inevitable wel- 
come awaited it in our own country, where it has proved its 
basic worth, by moving naturally and steadily forward 
on the national stream, which is ever rising toward its 
level of a true democracy. 

And now another half century has passed away, pressed 
down and running over with pioneer intensities and exi- 
gencies, and we look back and register the facts of this 
movement and call it history. 

The story of the kindergarten in America involves the 
naming of great statesmen, public-spirited men and 
women, far-seeing philanthropists and noble thinkers, as 
well as a host of public and private educators who have 
faithfully, even heroically, served to project the idea into 
the practice of our public school system. 

The pioneer stages are well over and the time has come 
for these records to be made accessible to all students and 
practitioners of education. 

It is therefore with peculiar gratification that I welcome 
this history of the kindergarten in America, by Miss 
Nina C. Vandewalker, who is so eminently well prepared 
to be its historian. Miss Vandewalker has had unusually 
successful experience in grade and normal school teaching, 



FOREWORD VII 

in supervising both primary and kindergarten work, as 
well as in kindergarten training. To this practical equip- 
ment Miss Vandewalker has also added that of the serious 
scholar. Her able articles have appeared in our leading 
scientific journals, and her just and accurate accounting 
of both the past history and present tendencies in elemen- 
tary education commands the respect and admiration of 
the entire teaching profession. 

A history of the kindergarten in America cannot fail 
to widen and deepen the public understanding of this 
unique movement, to know which, " root and stem, and 
branch and all," involves a composite knowledge of phi- 
losophies as old as Socrates, psychologies as new as yester- 
day, and the whole range of habits, activities, sentiments, 
and tendencies native to human life. 

AMALIE HOFER. 
Chicago Commons, 1907. 



PREFACE 

The kindergarten is an accomplished fact in American 
life and education. That it embodies the fundamental 
principles of child training, that it has become a part of 
the school system in every progressive community, and 
that its principles are being increasingly applied in ele- 
mentary education are matters of common knowledge. 
If one seeks, however, for definite information concerning 
the origin, growth, or present status of the movement in 
the United States, he is at a loss. Books treating of dif- 
ferent phases of kindergarten theory or practice are numer- 
ous, it is true, and articles have been written describing the 
origin and growth of the movement in different centers ; but 
the attempts thus far made to summarize the movement as 
a whole have either been too brief to give its general scope, 
or have been published in a form not readily obtainable. 
This book is the outgrowth of a recognized need for a 
survey "of kindergarten progress in the United States. 

The articles that have appeared in the kindergarten 
periodicals from time to time describing the work in the 
different cities have played an important part in advancing 
the kindergarten cause, and the publication of the most 
important of these in book form would make a valuable 
contribution to educational literature. While such a 



X PREFACE 

collection would furnish many facts of kindergarten history, 
it would fail, however, to give what is equally needed, — 
an insight into the movement as a whole, and into its 
relation to other movements that have shaped American 
life and education. The kindergarten movement, like 
other movements, must be seen in its proper perspective 
before it can be correctly estimated. To portray the 
kindergarten movement in its relation to American educa- 
tion as a whole is the difficult task which the author has 
attempted in this book. The treatment which this calls 
for must of necessity lack in concreteness, and therefore 
perhaps in interest, for the average reader at least, but it 
is hoped that the limitations which the form of treatment 
imposes may be compensated for by the added insight 
that will be given into the movement as a whole. 

The author recognizes that it may not be the part of 
wisdom to discuss movements whose full significance has 
not yet been revealed, since conclusions now drawn, 
or interpretations now made, may be valueless in the near 
future. She feels, however, that there is need for a state- 
ment of the movements that have brought about the present 
differences in theory and practice among kindergartners, 
although the time may not yet have come to estimate them 
correctly. She considers that the theory and practice 
of the kindergarten, as well as that of education as a whole, 
are being slowly evolved, and that no one school of thought 
alone will furnish it. Although an interpretation of cur- 
rent tendencies may have but a passing value, therefore, 
she maintains that some statement of these tendencies is 



PREFACE XI 

needed to make present conditions intelligible, even though 
in the near future a restatement may be needed. 

The information given in the following pages has been 
obtained from many sources. Among these are : Barnard's 
American Journal of Education; the Reports of the Com- 
missioner of Education and of the National Educational 
Association; the bound volumes of The Kindergarten 
Magazine and The Kindergarten Review; and Miss 
Anderson's Kindergarten Annual. The histories of edu- 
cation in the United States by Boone, Dexter, and Butler, 
as well as Monroe's " Text-book in the History of Educa- 
tion " and Martin's " The Evolution of the Massachu- 
setts School System " have been freely consulted, as 
have many other books and periodicals quoted in the 
text. Talcott Williams' article on " The Kindergarten 
Movement," published in The Century; Susan E. Blow's 
" History of the Kindergarten in the United States," in 
The Outlook; and Hamilton W. Mabie's article on "The 
Kindergarten in America," also published in The Out- 
look, have likewise proved valuable and suggestive. 

Much information has also been obtained from cor- 
respondence. That concerning legislation authorizing the 
establishment of kindergartens in the different states of the 
Union has been obtained largely from the Superintendents 
of Public Instruction in the different states. The informa- 
tion concerning the kindergarten in temperance, welfare, 
and missionary work has also been obtained largely 
from correspondence. The author takes this occasion to 
thank all those who have rendered such assistance. 



Xll PREFACE 

She wishes to acknowledge her special indebtedness 
to the late Carl Schurz and to his daughter, Miss Agatha 
Schurzj for information concerning the life of Mrs. Schurz, 
and for permission to use her picture ; to Mr. Charles H. 
Doerflinger of Milwaukee for the loan of a complete 
file of The New Education; to Mr. C. W. Bardeen, of 
Syracuse, N.Y., for the loan of two volumes of The 
Kindergarten Messenger and other books now out of print ; 
and to Mr. Manfred J. Holmes, Secretary of the National 
Society for the Scientific Study of Education, for permission 
to use portions of the article on " The History of Kinder- 
garten Influence in Elementary Education," which ap- 
peared in the Sixth Year Book of that society. She wishes 
to express her thanks to Miss Anna Webster Lytle of the 
Milwaukee State Normal School; to Dr. Edward L. 
Thorndike and Dr. John A. MacVannel of Teachers 
College; and to Miss Amalie Hofer of the Pestalozzi- 
Froebel Training School of Chicago for valuable sugges- 
tions and for reading the completed manuscript. 

NINA C. VANDEWALKER. 

Milwaukee State Normal School, 
Milwaukee, Wis., December, 1907. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Kindergarten in Relation to Educational 

Progress i 

II. The Period of Introduction ; Kindergarten , Nv 
Beginnings 12 

III. Early Literature 25 

IV. The Period of Extension; General Charac- 

teristics 37 

V. Kindergarten Associations and Women's Clubs 55 

VI. The Kindergarten in Church, Sunday School, 

and Mission Work 76 

VII. The Kindergarten in Temperance, Settlement, 

and Welfare Work 103 

VIII. The Kindergarten and Educational Organiza- 
tions and Exhibitions 129 

IX. Progress in Kindergarten Literature . .159 

X. The Kindergarten in the Public School 

System 183 

XI. Kindergarten Influence in Elementary Edu- 
cation 209 

XII. New Tendencies 232 

Appendix 257 

Index 269 

xiii 



THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN 
EDUCATION 

CHAPTER I 

The Kindergarten in Relation to Educational 
Progress 

The kindergarten movement is one of the most signifi- 
cant movements in American education. In the fifty or 
more years that have passed since the first kindergarten 
was opened in the United States education has been trans- 
formed, and the kindergarten has been one of the agencies 
in the transformation. Although it came to this country 
when the educational ideal was still in the process of 
transformation, its aims and methods differed too radi- 
cally from the prevailing ones to meet with immediate 
acceptance. The kindergarten is, however, the educa- 
tional expression of the principles upon which American 
institutions are based, and as such it could not but live 
and grow upon American soil, if not in the school system, 
then out of it. Trusting to its^ inherent truth to win 
recognition and influence, it started on its educational 
mission as an independent institution, the embodiment of 
a new educational ideal. Its exponents proclaimed a new 
gospel — that of man as a creative being, and education 

B I 



2 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

as a process of self-expression. They substituted activity 
for the prevailing repression, and insisted upon the child's 
right to himself and to happiness during the educational 
process. They emphasized the importance of early child- 
hood, and made the ideal mother the standard for the 
teacher. They recognized the value of beauty as a 
factor in education, and by means of music, plants, and 
pictures in the kindergarten they revealed the barrenness 
of the old-time schoolroom. By their sympathetic inter- 
pretation of childhood, their exaltation of motherhood, 
their enthusiasm for humanity, and their intense moral 
earnestness they carried conviction to the educational 
world. The kindergarten so won its way to the hearts 
of the people that the school at last opened its doors and 
bade it welcome. It has become the symbol of the new 
education. 

The acceptance of the kindergarten in the United 
States has not depended wholly upon the attitude of the 
school, nor upon the recognition of its pedagogical value. 
The kindergarten was the outgrowth of the idealistic 
philosophy which so profoundly influenced the world's 
thought during the century just closed. As the influence 
of that thought made itself felt in American life, the thought 
of the people became receptive to the kindergarten mes- 
sage. Until the conception of man as spiritual had been 
emphasized in the American pulpit, the church and Sun- 
day-school would not have been ready for Froebel's sug- 
gestions concerning the child's spiritual development. 
Until the mission of art to humanity had been recognized, 



RELATION TO EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 3 

the emphasis which the kindergarten places upon beauty 
as a factor in education would not have been understood. 
Until the heart of America had been stirred to a new 
sense of human brotherhood, the significance of the kin- 
dergarten as an agency for the salvation of neglected 
childhood would not have been appreciated. Until the 
school conceived of education as something more funda- 
mental than instruction in the Three R's, the doctrine of 
education by development would not have been selected 
as the foundation for educational procedure. The prog- 
ress of the kindergarten cannot be fully understood, 
therefore, without a glance at the history of American 
thought during the latter part of the nineteenth century. 
Its progress in relation to elementary education cannot be 
adequately comprehended without an acquaintance with 
certain significant facts in American school history during 
the past fifty years. 

The building up of the American school system has 
been a slow process, — one not yet satisfactorily com- 
pleted. It began, not at the bottom, with the work of 
the youngest children, but at the top. In fact, the value 
of early childhood for educational purposes was the last 
to be recognized and the work of the youngest children 
was the last to be provided for. The primary school had 
to win its way into the school system much as the kinder- 
garten is now winning a place there. For many years 
children were not allowed to attend the "reading and 
writing schools" until they were seven years of age, and 
even then only on the condition that they had already 



4 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

learned to read. Even after primary schools were estab- 
lished they were not regarded as a part of the school 
system ; both in and out of New England — in Boston 
until 1854 — they were managed independently. It 
was not until about i860 that the present system of grading 
was established. A complete revolution in educational 
thought was therefore necessary before the kindergarten 
could hope for recognition. Had Froebel himself come 
to the United States, as he at one time thought of doing, 
his message would have fallen upon deaf ears, for until 
the importance of early childhood for educational pur- 
poses began to be recognized, the kindergarten could have 
no meaning. It is not strange, therefore, that the ten 
kindergartens opened in the United States before 1870 — 
with one exception established by educated Germans — 
should have attracted relatively little attention. 

Before the kindergarten could hope for general recog- 
nition, however, other important changes in educational 
thought were necessary. While education was looked 
upon as a process of instruction in the Three R's only, 
the kindergarten could hope for little or no recognition. 
When that conception gave way to one of development, 
the fundamental value of kindergarten theory and practice 
became apparent. Although the older view has not been 
entirely supplanted even yet, it was practically unques- 
tioned until after the organization of the graded school 
system — until the Civil War. The growth of the psy- 
chological conception of education which in the United 
States began to make itself felt at about this time, was a 



RELATION TO EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 5 

gradual one toward which many influences and individuals 
contributed. Probably no one person's influence did 
more in the early years than that of Dr. E. A. Sheldon, 
the founder of the Oswego Normal School. Dr. Sheldon 
had come under the influence of Pestalozzi's principles 
and methods while superintendent of schools in Oswego, 
N.Y., and in 1861 he opened in the city schools a depart- 
ment for the training of teachers on Pestalozzian prin- 
ciples. That there is a natural order in the child's develop- 
ment and that this order must determine the character of 
early education was the principle especially emphasized. 
This called for objective teaching and self-expression in 
the early years, however, not primarily for instruction in 
the language arts. The work based upon these principles 
proved so successful that in 1863 the little training class 
in the city schools was organized into a state normal 
school. The success and enthusiasm of the graduates of 
the Oswego Normal School was such that they were 
sought for in nearly every state in the Union. With the 
gradual acceptance of the new views the kindergarten 
began to assume significance, and its message no longer 
fell on unheeding ears. 

The insight into the psychological conception of edu- 
cation brought about by its successful application at 
Oswego was doubtless one of the causes for another 
advance in elementary education having an important 
bearing upon kindergarten progress. This was the addi- 
tion of drawing and manual training to the elementary 
curriculum. The introduction of these subjects indicated 



6 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

a new trend in education, — a trend in the direction of 
activity as a principle in school work. This principle 
is basic in the procedure of the kindergarten, but until 
the value of activity for the pupils in the grades began to 
make itself felt the message of the kindergarten was but 
partially comprehended. But the adoption of this prin- 
ciple — the first outward indication of which was the 
introduction of drawing into the schools of Boston in 
1870 — had not come without effort, and was the result 
of practical considerations rather than of pedagogical 
insight. The necessity for art instruction as a factor in 
education had been impressed upon England by the 
London Exhibition of 185 1, and the awakening of England 
had had its effect upon American education. The value 
of art education had been further emphasized by the Paris 
Exposition of 1867, and the introduction of drawing into 
the schools of Boston was the result. The advocates of art 
teaching realized, however, that the value and feasibility 
of such teaching needed demonstrating to the people at 
large. The opportunity for such a demonstration was 
furnished by the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. The 
exhibit of drawing and manual training work made by 
the Boston schools on that occasion was the direct stimulus 
to the introduction of these subjects into the schools of 
the country. Competent authorities have declared the 
addition of these two subjects, drawing and manual train- 
ing, to be "the most notable educational advance of the 
past two decades." "Throughout all the long hundred 
years in which they had been building a nation, Americans 



RELATION TO EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 7 

had shown themselves children of utility, not of beauty," 
says Woodrow Wilson. "Everything they used showed 
only the plain unstudied lines of practical serviceability. 
The things to be seeri at Philadelphia, gathered from all 
the world, awakened them to a new sense of form and 
beauty. Men knew afterward that that had been the 
dawn of an artistic renaissance in America, which was 
to put her architects and artists alongside the modern 
masters of beauty, and redeem the life of the people from 
its ugly severity." 

The recognition awarded at the Philadelphia Exposition 
to the lines of work upon which the kindergarten had from 
the beginning placed the greatest stress, brought that 
institution a recognition not accorded it before, and 
another step was taken in the preparation for its general 
acceptance. The friends of the kindergarten were not 
satisfied, however, with a recognition of its principles alone. 
They felt that the institution as such had a mission in 
American life and education, and had seen in the Exposi- 
tion the opportunity for presenting its message to the 
American people. A model kindergarten on the Expo- 
sition grounds had been arranged for, which was carried 
on for the entire time that the Exposition was in progress. 
The message it had to offer was heard and understood, 
and from that time on its acceptance was assured. 

For the two decades following the Philadelphia Expo- 
sition the main lines of educational advance were the 
introduction of courses in drawing and manual training 
into the schools of the country, and the incorporation of the 



8 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

kindergarten into the school system. The kindergarten 
did not always yield the results for grade work that its 
friends anticipated, however, since the aims of the kinder- 
garten and those of the school lacked unity of purpose. 
The attempted application of kindergarten principles to 
the higher grades was frequently disappointing for the 
same reason. The new studies too — drawing, manual 
training, and nature study — were often merely additions 
to the curriculum, without an insight into their real pur- 
pose and value or their relation to the traditional studies. 
For this, and other reasons too complex for discussion 
here, the need of a more fundamental educational theory 
began to be felt. The response to this need was the "new 
psychology " — the psychology of James, Hall, and 
others — which began to make itself felt during the last 
decade of the century. The new psychology, of which 
the child study movement was the natural outgrowth, 
had a most important bearing upon kindergarten progress. 
The nature of its bearing upon that progress must be 
reserved for a later chapter. Suffice it to say in passing, 
however, that the new psychology set the seal of its approval 
upon the main features of kindergarten procedure and 
upon the application of its principles to grade work. 
To many it gave their first insight into the aims and pur- 
poses of the kindergarten; to others it reinterpreted the 
Froebelian doctrines and gave them a broader significance. 
The new psychology therefore prepared the way for an 
appreciation of the kindergarten and of the other move- 
ments in education that would have been impossible before. 



RELATION TO EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 9 

An acquaintance with the general progress of American 
thought thus briefly outlined will serve as a background 
against which the progress of the kindergarten may be 
seen in clear relief. A new conception of education was 
necessary before the significance of the kindergarten could 
be comprehended, but this alone would not have accorded 
it the place it now holds in popular esteem. A new 
Christianity too was needed, no less than a new ethics, 
and a new insight into the mission of art. The "new 
theology " no less than the "new psychology" has played 
a part in advancing kindergarten progress. The social 
reformer doubtless proclaimed the message of Froebel 
as effectively as did the educational expert. Visions of a 
new theology, a new ethics, a new art, and a new educa- 
tion began to dawn upon the American people during the 
years immediately following the Civil War. The struggle 
for the realization of the new ideals characterized the last 
two decades of the century. From the standpoint of kin- 
dergarten progress the first of these periods — from the 
opening of the first kindergarten in 1855 until after the 
Philadelphia Exposition — may appropriately be called 
the Period of Introduction; the second the Period of 
Extension. The first period divides itself naturally into 
the period of the German kindergarten, — from 1855 to 
about 1870, — and the period from 1870 to 1880 or there- 
abouts when the kindergarten was accepted by Americans 
as an institution adapted to American conditions and 
American needs. The period of extension falls likewise 
into two subdivisions. During the first of these — from 



IO THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

1880 to 1890 — the kindergarten was accepted with 
relatively little question ; during the second — from 1890 
until the present time — a more critical attitude has set 
in, and a reconstruction of its theory and practice is de- 
manded. The dates given are general and approximate 
only, as the movement has differed radically in its origin 
and progress in different localities. There are many 
sections of the country where the period of introduction 
is still to be entered upon ; there are others where the 
kindergarten is known and theoretically appreciated, but 
where its extension into the school system has not yet been 
effected ; there are others still — not infrequently kinder- 
garten strongholds — where no evidence appears that 
the criticisms made upon its procedure during the past 
ten years have been heard or heeded. These differences 
are not surprising. Where the movement has been pri- 
marily philanthropic, where it has come into no contact 
with progressive school work and educational leaders, it 
is not surprising that . the older views should obtain. 
Where the work brings the kindergartner into a constant 
association with those of larger outlook, it would be little 
to her credit if the newer views did not prevail. The peri- 
ods outlined are intended to serve as a framework against 
which the progress of the kindergarten may be seen in 
its relation to the progress of elementary education as a 
whole. 

It is too early for a complete history of the kindergarten 
movement, but the general demand for information upon 
the subject, more comprehensive and available than the 



RELATION TO EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS II 

magazine articles or summaries in the Report of the Com- 
missioner of Education, which have heretofore been the 
main sources of knowledge, has led to this brief statement 
of the main facts of kindergarten history. It is intended 
primarily for the younger kindergartners, to whom an 
acquaintance with the movement with which they are 
allied is essential to intelligent effort. It aims also to 
acquaint the younger school men of the country with one 
of the vitalizing influences in American education during 
the past quarter century, and to lead them to a study of 
the Froebelian philosophy. If it succeeds in showing 
them the reasons for the differences that prevail among 
kindergartners at the present time, and in securing their 
cooperation in the problem of adjusting the kindergarten 
to the school, it will have rendered a needed service. 



CHAPTER II 

The Period of Introduction; Kindergarten 
Beginnings 

The first kindergarten in the United States is popularly 
supposed to have been the one opened in B ostpnJ n i860 
by Miss Elizabeth Peabody, but the real beginning of the 
movement must be placed several years earlier and ascribed 
to a different source. The European Revolution of 1848 
brought to the United States many Germans of culture 
and influence, who during the decade between 1850 and 
i860 established private schools, bilingual in character, 
in all the larger cities in which their countrymen had 
settled, — New York City, Hoboken, Detroit, Milwaukee, 
Louisville, and several others. It was in these schools, 
based upon the principles of the new education, which 
at that time had found little or no recognition in the United 
States, that the kindergarten in the United States had its 
real origin. Although these schools did not attract from 
American educators the attention which their excellence 
deserved, and hardly a mention can be found of the kinder- 
gartens that most of them contained, their indirect influence 
in behalf of the new education in general and of the kinder- 
garten in particular was considerable. The whole kinder- 
garten movement in Wisconsin can be traced to the efforts 






PERIOD of introduction; beginnings 13 

made in its behalf by those in charge of the German- 
English Academy of Milwaukee, — an institution of the 
kind in question, and this is not an isolated instance. 
The German-English Academy at Louisville, Ky., and 
that at Detroit, Mich., as well as the institution in Newark, 
N.J., of which Dr. Adolph Douai was principal, did ef- 
fective service in promoting the spread of the new insti- 
tution. Although several of the earliest kindergartens 
were private and independent, the impulse that led to their 
organization came from the same general source. With 
the single exception of Miss Peabody's, the ten kinder- 
gartens established in the United States before 1820 all 
owed their origin to the movement in question. The first 
kindergarten in the United States was one in the home of 
Mrs. Carl §churz, in Watertown, Wis., in 1855. The 
second was that opened by Miss Caroline Louise Frank- 
enburg in Columbus, Ohio, in 1858. As far as can be 
learned, the first of the German-English institutions to 
adopt the kindergarten was Dr. Douai's school, to which 
reference has already been made. The kindergarten 
became a part of that institution in 186 1. A kindergarten 
was opened in Hoboken, N.J., at about the same time, 
and three years later two were opened in New York City. 
One was opened in West Newton, Mass., in 1864 by Mrs. 
Louise Pollock. The inspiration of the kindergarten 
ideal came to Dr. William N. Hailman in i860, during a 
visit to the schools of Zurich, Switzerland, arid in 1865 
he added a kindergarten to the German-English Academy 
of Louisville, Ky., of which he was president. It was in 



14 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

this kindergarten that Mrs. Eudora L. Hailman found the 
inspiration to her life work, and that she and her husband 
began their thirty years of united service to the kinder- 
garten cause. The German-English Academy of Detroit 
adopted the kindergarten in ,1869, and in 1873 organized 
effort in its behalf was undertaken by the German-English 
Academy of Milwaukee. There is little record of the 
effort made by these institutions or by the private kinder- 
gartens thus established to influence existing educational 
procedure, but the indications are that such influence was 
much more widespread than has been supposed. 

The efforts made in behalf of the kindergarten by Dr. 
Henry Barnard and Miss Elizabeth Peabody are fairly 
familiar to the educational public, but the relation between 
these efforts and those of the German exponents of the 
kindergarten has never been adequately shown. Dr. 
Barnard visited England in 1854 as a delegate to the 
International Exhibit of Educational Systems and Ma- 
terials, and while there became deeply interested in the 
kindergarten. English interest in the doctrines of Froebel 
had been awakened in 1854 by the lectures of the Baroness 
von Marenholz-Buelow, Froebel's foremost disciple, and 
by the practical work of Madam Bertha Ronge, who had 
been a pupil of Froebel and an active worker in the kinder- 
garten cause in her native city of Hamburg. With Madam 
Ronge had been associated her sister, Miss Margaretha 
Meyer, also a pupil of Froebel. Dr. Barnard made a 
report of the educational exhibition in general and of the 
kindergarten in particular to the governor of Connecticut 



period of introduction; beginnings 15 

upon his return. He also described the exhibit of kinder- 
garten materials in an article in the American Journal 
of Education, of which he was the editor. The report in 
question and the article, published in 1856, were, as far 
as known, the first articles concerning the kindergarten 
to appear in print in the United States. Between the 
time of Dr. Barnard's London visit and the publication of 
the articles, however, the kindergarten itself had appeared 
upon American soil. Miss Meyer had become the wife 
of Carl Schurz, and had come to the United States, settling 
in Watertown, Wis. In order to give her own children 
the advantages of kindergarten training she gathered 
together the children of relatives who lived near, and 
taught them the kindergarten songs, games, and occupa- 
tions in true Froebelian fashion. This was, as has been 
stated, the first kindergarten in the United States. 

Dr. Barnard's report concerning the kindergarten had 
awakened the interest of Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, 
who is usually considered the apostle of the kindergar- 
ten movement in the United States. The interest thus 
awakened was deepened by an article which appeared in 
the Christian Examiner in 1859. This article, written 
by Mrs. Edna D. Cheney and Miss Anna Q. T. Parsons, 
was a description of the kindergartens of Germany and a 
summary of Froebel's principles as stated by the Baroness 
von Buelow. Miss Peabody at once undertook the study 
of Froebel, and a chance meeting with Mrs. Schurz during 
a visit of the latter to Boston in the winter of 1859 fanned 
her interest into a flame of enthusiasm. Having gained 



10 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

from Mrs. Schurz an insight into the practical details 
of conducting a kindergarten, she opened the kindergarten 
associated with her name the following year. "Miss 
Peabody had participated in the great social, literary, 
religious, and philosophical movement somewhat vaguely 
described as New England Transcendentalism," says 
Miss Blow, "and was peculiarly fitted both by natural 
endowment and experience to enter into the thought of 
Froebel." She was at this time fifty-five years of age, 
and in the full maturity of her powers. As sister-in-law 
of Horace Mann she had come into vital contact with the 
great educational movement identified with his name. 
She was a close friend of Bronson Alcott, in whose unique 
educational experiment she had shared. She had taught 
for years also in another private school of considerable 
note. That she gradually realized from the inadequacy 
of her results that the philosophy of Froebel needed a 
deeper study than she had given it; that she went to 
Europe in 1867 for the additional study which she con- 
sidered necessary; and that she devoted the remaining 
years of her active life to the advancement of the kinder- 
garten cause by teaching, writing, and lecturing, are facts 
well known to the student of educational history. 

The significance for elementary education of the decade 
from 1 870-1 880 has already been commented upon. It 
was a significant decade for the kindergarten movement 
also, not alone because influences favorable to the kinder- 
garten were set into operation at that time, but for other 
reasons as well. One of the indications of advance in the 



period of introduction; beginnings 17 

kindergarten movement was the establishment of kinder- 
garten training schools, the first of which was opened in 
Boston in 1868 by* Madame Matilde Kriege and her 
daughter. These ladies were pupils of the Baroness von 
Marenholz-Buelow, who had been induced to come to 
Boston by Miss Peabody. In 18 72, M iss Henrietta B. 
Haines, the principal of a large private school in New York 
City, invited Miss Maria Boelte to open a kindergarten 
in her school. Miss Boelte was a pupil of Froebel's 
widow, who had achieved marked success both in England 
and in Germany. Her work in New York attracted 
much favorable attention. At the close of the year Miss 
Boelte married Professor John Kraus, already an exponent 
of the kindergarten, and together they established a 
kindergarten training school which is still in existence, 
although it has been carried on by Madame Kraus-Boelte 
alone since Professor Kraus's death in 1896. As trained 
kindergartners were thus becoming available, kinder- 
gartens multiplied rapidly. The kindergarten found a 
foothold in Washington, D.C., in 1870 through the efforts 
of Mrs. Susan Pollock, and its influence was strengthened 
in 1872 by the establishment of a training school under 
Miss Emma Marwedel. In 1873 several German 
kindergartens were established in Milwaukee, through 
the agency of the German-English Academy of that city, 
and when the following year Professor W. N. Hailman 
succeeded to the presidency of that institution, kindergarten 
training was instituted also. The year 1873 saw the 
beginning of the kindergarten training movement in St. 
c 



1 8 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Louis, under the leadership of Miss Susan E. Blow, and 
the following year saw the beginnings of the movement 
in Chicago, under the leadership of Mrs. Alice H. Putnam. 
In 1875 kindergartens were opened in Indianapolis and 
in Los Angeles, CaL, and in 1876 in Denver and San 
Francisco, as a result of a lecturing tour by Dr. Felix 
Adler, who espoused the kindergarten cause almost from 
the beginning. The Philadelphia Exposition acquainted 
the Quaker City with the new institution, and when the 
Exposition closed, Miss Ruth Burritt, the "Centennial 
kindergartner," remained in Philadelphia to open a kinder- 
garten and a kindergarten training school. The kinder- 
garten spread rapidly during the latter part of the decade, 
the result in part of the larger acquaintance with it for 
which the Philadelphia Exposition had furnished the 
opportunity. The friends of the kindergarten had recog- 
nized the opportunity which the Exposition would afford, 
and had planned accordingly. The Exposition kinder- 
garten was conducted in an annex to the Woman's Pavilion, 
by Miss Ruth Burritt of Wisconsin, who had had several 
years of experience as a primary teacher before she became 
a kindergartner, and whose manner and insight were such 
as to gain adherents for the new cause. The enclosure 
for visitors was always crowded, many of the on-lookers 
being "hewers of wood and drawers of water, who were 
attracted by the sweet singing and were spellbound by 
the lovely spectacle." Thousands thronged to see the 
new educational departure, and many remained hours 
afterwards to ask questions. The Exposition marked 



PERIOD of introduction; beginnings 19 

an epoch in the advancement of the kindergarten move- 
ment, as it marked an epoch in the history of elementary 
education. 

The ready acceptance of the kindergarten after the 
Philadelphia Exposition did not imply a recognition of its 
pedagogical value alone ; in fact it is worthy of note that 
many of the kindergartens established at this period were 
philanthropic in their ultimate purpose. As the rapid 
growth of cities and the increasing immigration was fast 
developing the slum with its attendant evils, people were 
beginning to realize that some antidote must be found. 
The value of the kindergarten as a child-saving agency 
was at once recognized, and churches and philanthropic 
societies took up the movement. The first charity kinder- 
garten was opened in 1870 in the village of College Point, 
N.Y. ; others were opened the same year in Cleveland, 
Ohio, and Florence, Mass. In speaking of this phase 
of kindergarten work in the Report of the Commissioner 
of Education, Miss Laura Fisher says : — 

"Centering among, and concerning itself with, the 
children of the poor, and having for its aim the elevation 
of the home, it was natural that the kindergarten as a 
philanthropic movement should win great and early 
favor. The mere fact that the children of the slums were 
kept off the streets, and that they were made clean and 
happy by kind and motherly young women; that the 
child thus being cared for enabled the mother to go about 
her work in or outside the home — all this appealed to the 
heart of America, and America gave freely to make these 



20 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

kindergartens possible. Churches established kinder- 
gartens, individuals endowed kindergartens, and associa- 
tions were organized for the spread and support of kinder- 
gartens in nearly every large city.' , 

The fact that kindergartens could be carried on success- 
fully under public school conditions was satisfactorily 
demonstrated by the experiment made in St, Louis, Mo., 
by Superintendent William T. Harris and Miss Susan E. 
Blow. But for this experiment the general introduction 
of the kindergarten into the schools of the country — 
accomplished in large part during the following period — 
might have been postponed for many years. Dr. Harris 
was at this time acknowledged as the leading exponent 
of the idealistic philosophy in the United States, and as 
such he had actively espoused the kindergarten cause. 
Miss Blow was a native of St. Louis who had taken a 
course of kindergarten training in Miss Boelte's school. 
Superintendent Harris had recommended the adoption 
of the kindergarten as a part of the school system to the 
St. Louis school board in 1870, but the first step in that 
direction was taken in -18.73, when Miss Blow offered to 
superintend a kindergarten and instruct a teacher gratui- 
tously, if the board would provide the teacher, the room, 
and suitable equipment. The offer was accepted, and 
the kindergarten was so successful that additional ones 
were soon called jor. A training school was organized, 
as Miss Blow preferred to train her own co-workers, and 
new kindergartens were opened as fast as kindergartners 
could be trained. The success of the experiment made 



BEGINNINGS 21 

St. Louis the center of interest among school men, and 
educators from all parts of the country coming to visit, 
the stimulus was carried to their respective cities. Dr. 
Harris severed his connection with the St. Louis schools 
in ;t88o and Miss Blow withdrew from the work that she 
had so successfully inaugurated in 1884, but by that time 
the practical value of the kindergarten as a part of the 
school system had been demonstrated to the satisfaction 
of the educational public. 

The friends of the kindergarten movement in Wisconsin 
looked even farther than the introduction of the kinder- 
garten into the public schools. They wished to secure 
its adoption by the normal school system of the state, 
and to provide for the training of kindergartners at state 
expense. Because of the many German residents of the 
state who had brought an acquaintance with the kinder- 
garten from the land of their birth, the movement in 
Wisconsin had made considerable headway before it 
came into contact with the movement as it had developed 
in other sections of the country. In 1870 a vigorous 
campaign had been undertaken in Milwaukee which had 
resulted in 1873 in the organization of kindergartens in 
the four German-English institutions of that city. Pro- 
fessor William N. Hailman's acceptance of the presidency 
of one of these institutions in 1874 had not only strength- 
ened the kindergarten sentiment among the German- 
speaking people, but had also brought it to the attention 
of the English-speaking people of the city and state. 
The first English kindergarten in Milwaukee was organ- 



22 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

ized by Mrs. Hailman, and training classes were under- 
taken in both languages. A campaign for the introduc- 
tion of the kindergarten into the schools of Milwaukee 
and into the normal school system of the state was under- 
taken. The second of these objects was accomplished 
during the decade under consideration, and the first soon 
after the opening of the following one. A kindergarten 
was opened in the State Normal School at Oshkosh in the 
spring of 1880, — "the first kindergarten officially and 
directly connected with any state normal school in the 
United States." A similar movement had been under- 
taken in Minnesota, and a few months later a kinder- 
garten department was also opened in the State Normal 
School of Winona. 

The organization of the National Educational Associa- 
tion in 1872 had afforded another means of stimulating 
interest in the kindergarten on the part of school men. 
At the first meeting Professor Hailman, then of Louisville, 
Ky., had presented a paper on "The Adaptation of 
Froebel's System of Education to American Institutions," 
and urged the appointment of a committee to examine 
the system. The committee, consisting of Professor John 
Kraus, John Hancock, Dr. Adolph Douai, William T. 
Harris, George A. Baker, J. W. Dickinson, and William 
N. Hailman, made a most favorable report the following 
year, and the impression made by the report was strength- 
ened by a paper read before the Association by Mrs. 
Kraus-Boelte. In the years immediately following, the 
cause of the kindergarten was kept before the Association 



PERIOD of introduction; beginnings 23 

by Mrs. Kraus-Boelte, Dr. Harris, and Professor Hail- 
man. 

At the end of the decade the friends of the kindergarten 
had abundant reasons to rejoice at the progress of the 
cause. In 1870 there were less than a dozen kindergartens 
in existence, all save one established by Germans and 
conducted in the German language; in 1880 there were 
not less than four hundred scattered over thirty states. 
In 1870 there was one kindergarten training school in the 
United States; in 1880 such schools had been established 
in the ten largest cities of the country and in many smaller 
ones. The year 1870 saw the establishment of the first 
charity kindergarten; in 1880 the new institution had 
become recognized as the most valuable of child-saving 
agencies, and mission kindergarten work had become so 
popular among wealthy young women as to be almost a 
fad. The practicability of the kindergarten as a part of 
the school system had been successfully demonstrated, 
and the logical sequence of its future relation to the school 
had been recognized by the establishment of kindergarten 
training departments in the normal school systems of two 
great states. The National Educational Association 
had set the seal of its approval upon the principles which 
the kindergarten embodied, and had commended the 
institution to the school men of the country for experiment 
and consideration. "The lessons of the Philadelphia 
Exposition, at which the meaning of the art and industrial 
elements in education was first revealed to the American 
teachers," had been taken to heart, and the result of the 



24 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

awakening it had occasioned had been the attempted 
enrichment of the elementary curriculum by the addition 
of the subjects frequently termed " fads," — music, 
drawing, manual training, nature study, and physical 
culture. The fact that these subjects constituted an 
organic part of the kindergarten awakened an interest 
in that institution on the part of many who had thus far 
given it but little attention. They began to see in the 
kindergarten games the true beginning for the child's 
physical development ; in its gift and occupation exercises 
the foundation for art and manual training work; and 
in its garden work and nature excursions the foundation 
for a true knowledge of nature. The significance of the 
kindergarten as the logical foundation for a new system 
of education had therefore begun to dawn, and the com- 
prehensiveness of the Froebelian philosophy stood out in 
striking contrast to the meagerness of the educational 
theory which then prevailed. The period of its apprentice- 
ship was therefore over. Its advocates could silence doubt 
and criticism by pointing to results already achieved, 
and could urge its extension with the faith and enthusiasm 
born of the assurance that it met a recognized need in 
American life and education. 






CHAPTER III 

The Period of Introduction; Early Literature 

The present familiarity with the spirit and method 
of the new education makes it difficult to comprehend 
the curiosity with which the first kindergartens were 
regarded and the difficulty that people experienced in 
understanding its philosophy. Even a slight acquaintance 
with the views generally held a generation ago will show 
that the difference between the views of life of the twentieth 
century and those of the period of the Civil War is world- 
wide. The idealistic philosophy, of which the kinder- 
garten is the expression, considers the universe funda- 
mentally spiritual, and nature and humanity as but varying 
expressions of the World-Spirit, — God. Man is therefore 
in essence good, and education is a natural process of 
unfolding his spiritual capacities, in accordance with the 
universal laws of evolution. This doctrine has permeated 
every phase of the world's thinking during the past quarter 
century, and no longer seems strange and unfamiliar; 
but at the time in question there had been little to familiar- 
ize the American people with such views. It is not sur- 
prising, therefore, that the kindergarten which embodied 
them should have appealed most strongly to the highly 
educated and the spiritually minded in the early days, 

2 5 



26 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

and that its American sponsors should have been the New 
England Transcendentalists, — the American exponents 
of German idealism. The acceptance of the idealistic 
interpretation of the universe, reinforced later by the 
doctrine of evolution, then hardly yet formulated, and the 
new interpretation of Christianity in terms of social value, 
— these have given to the life and education of the present 
generation a depth and a significance that it lacked a 
generation ago. 

The few, therefore, caught the real significance of the 
new institution in the early years; the many saw, and 
comprehended but in part. Education in a guise so 
different from that which she had hitherto worn was 
practically unrecognizable. Visitors came, — too many 
for the well-being of the children or the comfort of the 
kindergartner ; but, aflame with the enthusiasm of a new 
insight, she bade them welcome, hoping to gain new con- 
verts to her educational faith. The kindergartner of 
to-day, beginning work in a new locality, encounters few 
of these difficulties. She deepens the interest of the in- 
quiring or silences the doubts of the skeptics by referring 
them to Froebel or his many interpreters, or by pointing 
to the results the kindergarten has accomplished in other 
localities. The kindergartner of the early day had no 
such resources. She must be, perforce, the priestess of 
the new cult, for available literature there was practically 
none. Froebel and his European exponents were hidden 
from the majority in the fastnesses of a foreign language. 
It is not surprising, therefore, that the translation of kinder- 



period of introduction; early literature 27 

garten literature should have been thought imperative, 
and that the spread of that literature should have been 
considered an essential part of the movement. Had not 
the philosophy of Froebel contained fundamental truth 
it could never have kindled the enthusiasm needed to over- 
come the almost unsurmountable obstacles. The lit- 
erature of the kindergarten, containing as it does the new 
philosophy of education in a nutshell, has been a sig- 
nificant factor in shaping educational ideals, and no study 
of the movement can be considered complete that does 
not include a resume of its development. 

The beginnings were insignificant enough. The brief 
mention of the kindergarten in the Journal of Education 
in 1856 and 1858, and the admirable exposition that had 
appeared in the Christian Examiner in 1859, had, as has 
been stated, acquainted a few people with the existence 
of the new institution. Charles Dickens, the first great 
English student of the kindergarten, had written for 
Household Words in 1855 an article on " Infant Gardens," 
as kindergartens were called when first introduced into 
England. This article was written for the purpose of 
calling attention to the work of the Baroness von Maren- 
holz-Buelow, who had come to England the year before 
to introduce the kindergarten system. "This article 
must always take a front rank as a strikingly clear, com- 
prehensive, and sympathetic exposition of the principles 
and processes of the kindergarten," says Professor James 
L. Hughes. The Baroness herself had written a pamphlet 
on "Infant Gardens " also, and her co-workers, Madam 



28 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Ronge and her husband, had written a " Practical Guide 
to the English Kindergartens." These articles had re- 
ceived considerable attention in the United States. 

In 1862 an article in the Atlantic Monthly by Miss 
Peabody, entitled "What is a Kindergarten?" attracted 
further attention to the movement, and the interest awak- 
ened by the article and the kindergarten itself led Miss 
Peabody to the publication of her " Kindergarten Guide" 
the following year. This consisted of two parts, — an 
exposition of the kindergarten by Miss Peabody, and a 
treatise on "The Moral Culture of Infancy" by her 
sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, who had herself been a teacher 
and a co-laborer with her husband in his efforts for the 
advancement of education. About four thousand copies 
of the "Guide" were sold. The following year Mrs. 
Louise Pollock of West Newton, Mass., already mentioned, 
translated one of the German kindergarten manuals. 
She also wrote a series of articles concerning the kinder- 
garten for a magazine called The Friend of Progress. 

To familiarize the public still further with the kinder- 
garten and with the educational principles that it repre- 
sents, Miss Peabody wrote for the New York Herald, in 
1867-1868, a series of articles upon the subject. The 
following year Miss Peabody, Mrs. Mann, the Baroness 
von Buelow, and others wrote a series of articles on the 
kindergarten and child culture in general for The Herald 
of Health. The editor of this magazine was Dr. M. L. Hol- 
brook, " the first journalistic friend of the kindergarten." 
He had been connected with Dr. Dio Lewis in his efforts 



period or introduction; early literature 29 

for the advancement of physical culture, and was at that 
time connected with the Hygienic Institute of New York 
City, which advocated the cure of the sick by hygiene and 
right living — a new idea at the time. These articles did 
much to acquaint a progressive class of people with methods 
of child rearing more rational then those which had thus 
far prevailed. 

Among the leading contributors to the advancement of the 
kindergarten idea at this time was Professor John Kraus, 
a friend of Froebel, who had settled in San Antonio, Texas, 
in 1 85 1. Professor Kraus had contributed to American 
journals frequent articles upon the Froebel-Pestalozzian 
methods, a series in The Army and Navy Gazette having at- 
tracted considerable attention. Recognizing the value of 
his acquaintance with the educational thought of Germany, 
Dr. Barnard had invited him in 1867 to become a member 
of the staff of the Bureau of Education. During the year 
he had contributed to the Washington papers a valuable 
series of articles upon the nature and purposes of the kin- 
dergarten. In 1870 and 187 1 he translated a pamphlet 
by the Baroness von Buelow, and made an elaborate report 
upon the kindergarten for the Report of the Commissioner 
of Education. In this and other ways he helped to keep 
the kindergarten cause before the public. 

To acquaint the public with the value of the new system 
of child training was one of the purposes of the friends of 
the movement during the early years, but another need 
speedily developed. As the demand for kindergartners 
increased and adequate opportunities for kindergarten 



30 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

training were still lacking, many with little or no prepara- 
tion attempted to open kindergartens. It soon became 
evident that if these were to continue, technical instruction 
in the use of the kindergarten instrumentalities was needed. 
It was to meet this need that Mrs. Pollock had translated 
one of the German manuals in 1865, and that Edward 
Wiebe had prepared his "Paradise of Childhood" in 
1869. It was because Professor Kraus and Mrs. Kraus- 
Boelte felt that these books did not sufficiently indicate 
the use of the materials and meet the needs of the many 
partially trained kindergartners that they undertook later 
what is undoubtedly their most important contribution to 
the movement, the "Kindergarten Guide," the first 
installment of which appeared in 1877. 

During the decade between 1870 and 1880 several im- 
portant books were written and translated. The first 
of these in order of time was "The Kindergarten ; A Man- 
ual for the Introduction of Froebel's System of Primary 
Education into the Public Schools," by Dr. Adolph 
Douai of Newark, N.J., the principal of one of the first 
German-English institutions in the United States to adopt 
the kindergarten. In 1872, Madam Matilde Kriege 
made a free translation of the Baroness von Buelow's 
"The Child," and in 1873 Professor William N. Hailman 
wrote his " Kindergarten Culture." The lectures by which 
the Baroness von Buelow had converted Paris to the 
kindergarten cause were translated in 1876 under the title 
"Education by Labor," and her "Reminiscences of 
Froebel" was translated by Mrs. Mann the following year. 



PERIOD of introduction; early literature 31 

Madam Kraus-Boelte's " Guide" also appeared during 
1877. Several of Miss Peabody's lectures had appeared 
from time to time in pamphlet form. Through the trans- 
lations of Miss Josephine Jarvis and Miss Fanny Dwight 
in 1879, Froebel's "Mother Play and Nursery Songs" 
was made accessible to English readers- The same year 
Dr. Holbrook translated and published "From Cradle to 
School" by Bertha Meyer, and Mrs. Pollock a collection 
of "Kindergarten Songs and Games." All these helped 
to satisfy the increasing demand for a fuller knowledge 
of the kindergarten, and the philosophy of which it is the 
embodiment. 

An important step in the advancement of the kinder- 
garten was taken in 1873, when Miss Peabody estab- 
lished The Kindergarten Messenger, a monthly magazine of 
twenty-four octavo pages. This was especially needed 
at this time, as it acquainted the scattered workers with 
each other, and afforded a means of communication be- 
tween them. In addition to reports from leading workers, 
correspondence, and general educational intelligence, it 
contained original articles, theoretical and practical, by 
leading kindergartners. The translation of "Reminis- 
cences of Froebel," "Education by Labor," and other 
books appeared first in its pages. It gives a vivid picture 
of kindergarten conditions during this introductory period, 
and the personality of the gifted editor is felt in every page. 
It is a veritable mine of data for the future historian of the 
movement. 

The fortunes of the little magazine were varied. In the 



32 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Peabody number of The Kindergarten Review, Miss Emilie 
Poulsson says: "Miss Peabody had her struggle in main- 
taining the Messenger. The list of subscribers was never 
long, and not all of these were so good as to pay their dues. 
The editor records that one year it covered its own expenses, 
but that did not happen twice. Although all her own 
service was given free there was much financial worry 
connected with the enterprise, and she was often grateful 
for the kind help received from one or another of her 
friends." The Messenger continued through 1873, 1874, 
and 1875, but the next year it became a department of 
The New England Journal of Education. This arrange- 
ment, however, did not satisfy Miss Peabody, and in Janu- 
ary, 1877, she again took the magazine into her own hands 
and ran it to the end of the year. As the thousand sub- 
scribers needed to meet expenses could not be obtained, it 
was merged in The New Education conducted by Professor 
Hailman, then of Milwaukee. 

The kindergarten interest that Professor Hailman had 
found existing in Milwaukee, and the financial support 
offered by Mr. Carl H. Doerflinger of that city, had enabled 
him to establish in 1876 the periodical in which The Kin- 
dergarten Messenger had now been merged. The New 
Education was an eight-page magazine, issued monthly. 
In the first number Professor Hailman thus stated the 
purpose of the new publication. "Froebel and Herbert 
Spencer are the principal exponents of the new education ; 
the kindergarten, Froebel's great gift to man, is the first 
decisive practical step toward a realization of its require- 



PERIOD of introduction; early literature 33 

ments. To aid in the propagation of the views of Froebel 
and Spencer on education ; to render the former, particu- 
larly, better known; to contribute in spreading the bless- 
ings of kindergarten culture in its genuine form and to 
make war upon all efforts for establishing spurious systems 
under cover of the honored name, — are the purposes of 
The New Education" Like The Kindergarten Messenger 
it contained practical articles for mothers and kindergart- 
ners, news concerning the spread of the new educational 
gospel, translations from standard German educators, dis- 
cussions of current educational questions, and vigorous 
and incisive editorials. Its scope was broader than that 
of its predecessor, and it played a most important part in 
advancing the kindergarten cause and in shaping the 
educational policy of the Northwest during its formative 
period. Professor Hailman modestly ascribed much of 
the credit to the unwearying generosity of the publisher, 
Mr. Doerflinger, who for years sent the periodical free to 
the leading school men of the state. He says: "We have 
little doubt that to this generosity, aided by his personal 
effort as a member of the State Board of Normal Regents, 
Wisconsin is largely indebted for her present advanced 
position on the questions discussed in The New Education." 
After six years of existence it went the way of its predeces- 
sor, and was merged in The Public School of Boston. 
Like its predecessor it is invaluable for the educational 
historian. 

The record of the kindergarten literature of the period 
would be incomplete without reference to the annual school 



34 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

reports of the superintendents in those cities which had 
adopted the kindergarten. Dr. Richard G. Boone consid- 
ers that "the reports of school officers and educators in- 
clude by far the largest part of America's contribution to 
the literature of education." He says : " But the most com- 
plete and systematic presentation of educational philos- 
ophy is to be found in the annual reports of Superintendent 
William T. Harris, while superintendent of the St. Louis 
schools, from 1867 to 1880." Three of these dealt with 
the kindergarten. That of 1875-1876 discussed its philos- 
ophy; that of the following year the results of the kin- 
dergarten in the St. Louis schools, and that of 1878-1879 
the history of the St. Louis kindergarten system. Although 
these reports seldom reached the general public, they were 
read by the leading school men of the country, and did 
much to shape educational opinion. The same is true 
of the articles on the kindergarten read before the National 
Educational Association, and embodied in the reports of 
that organization. 

No statement concerning kindergarten progress in the 
United States during this period would be complete with- 
out a reference to the two principal kindergarten supply 
and publishing companies, the Milton Bradley Company, 
of Springfield, Mass., and the Steiger Company, of New 
York City. Mr. Bradley's life experience had prepared 
him for conversion to the kindergarten cause in 1869, 
and through the improvement he has made in kinder- 
garten material and the assistance rendered in the publica- 
tion of kindergarten literature, he has won deserved rec- 



period of introduction; early literature 35 

ognition among kindergarten workers. Mr. Steiger, too, 
rendered valuable assistance during the early years. 
His confession of kindergarten faith was made in the 
publisher's preface to Madam Kriege's translation of 
"The Child." He says: "The publisher of this book 
is resolved to expend his best energies in the interest of 
education. He has witnessed with lively satisfaction the 
progress of education in this country; but while appre- 
ciating the good that has been done, he agrees with the 
opinion of many that the system is capable of improvement. 
He has, therefore, embraced the cause of the kindergarten, 
as best calculated in his judgment to inaugurate a thorough 
educational reform; and he will gladly entertain pro- 
posals for the publication of other works on the subject 
and cheerfully cooperate with school authorities, associa- 
tions, and individuals whose aim is the amelioration of 
existing modes of instruction." 

If the friends of the kindergarten had reason to rejoice 
at the progress of the institution itself during the decade 
under consideration, they had no less reason for satis- 
faction at the increase in its literature. In 1870, there were 
in the English language, as far as known, but four books 
on the kindergarten, — Madam Ronge's "Practical Guide 
to the English Kindergarten," Miss Peabody's "Kinder- 
garten Guide," Mrs. Pollock's translation of a German 
manual, and Wiebe's "Paradise of Childhood," a com- 
pilation from several such manuals. During the decade 
five important books had been translated in the United 
States, — the Baroness von Buelow's "The Child," 



36 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

" Education by Labor," and "Reminiscences of Froebel" ; 
FroebeFs "Mother Play and Nursery Songs," and Bertha 
Meyer's "From the Cradle to the School." Four books 
had been written, — Douai's "The Kindergarten," Hail- 
man's "Kindergarten Culture," Madam Kraus-Boelte's 
"Guide," and Mrs. Pollock's "Kindergarten Songs." 
In addition to this, hundreds of articles had appeared in 
newspapers and magazines, and several pamphlets had 
been printed, — some for free distribution. The Kinder- 
garten Messenger and The New Education had scattered 
the new ideas still farther. The seed-sowing was surely 
plentiful. The harvest will be traced in succeeding chap- 
ters. 



CHAPTER IV 

The Period of Extension; General Character- 
istics 

The recognition that the kindergarten had thus far 
obtained had made its extension a mere matter of time, 
but the history of its progress since 1880 has been inex- 
tricably interwoven with the history of American life and 
thought as a whole, and with that of elementary education 
in particular. Until that time the progress of the move- 
ment had been measured mainly by the increasing number 
of kindergartens opened; while such increase continued 
during the period in question, it constituted but one phase 
of kindergarten progress. The great advance made during 
the period was the general incorporation of the kinder- 
garten into the school system, and the application of its 
principles to elementary education. This was not accom- 
plished in a day or even in a decade. Even the quarter 
century that had passed since the date mentioned has not 
brought about the general adoption of the kindergarten 
as an institution or the general application of its principles 
to primary education. If the new movements which the 
Philadelphia Exposition had suggested could, with the dawn 
of the new decade, have been introduced into every city 
in the land by royal edict or magic power ; if fully equipped 

37 



38 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

kindergartens and complete drawing and manual training 
courses could have been put into operation everywhere by 
the pressing of a magic button at the stroke of an imperial 
clock, it would doubtless have retarded instead of advanced 
the ultimate progress of the kindergarten, the school and 
the American people. Insight into the new tendencies 
could not but be superficial at first, and the deepening of 
insight was a need that required time before the many- 
sided significance of the new movements could be grasped. 
This has been proved by the experience of more than one 
city in organizing its art and manual training courses, 
for example, upon a practical rather than upon a psy- 
chological basis. Some of these found themselves upon 
the wrong track after a time, and adopted a new course. 
Some are on the wrong track still, and have never dis- 
covered it. What has proved true of drawing and manual 
training has proved equally true of kindergartens pre- 
maturely introduced. Some of these that have deteriorated 
into a mechanical routine may be seen even now. This 
is also true of the so-called "kindergarten methods in 
primary work." This was too often a superficial manipu- 
lation of kindergarten material with older children, with- 
out adequate insight into the principles that underlie 
kindergarten procedure. Premature adoption and formu- 
lation have been the cause of many a failure, not in edu- 
cation alone. The apparent lagging of the footsteps of 
progress was therefore in many respects a blessing in dis- 
guise. 
The remedy was time, and the influences that were at 



PERIOD or extension; characteristics 39 

work among the American people deepening their intellec- 
tual and spiritual life in spite of other influences that were 
tending to its deterioration. "Few quarter centuries in 
the world's life bristle with salient events as does that 
following 1870," says E. Benjamin Andrews in discussing 
the political significance of the period. An estimate of 
its significance in the history of American thought would 
accord it a like commendation. There was a new stir 
in the pulses of the nation when the more immediate and 
vexing problems resulting from the Civil War were dis- 
posed of. The great development of the nation's indus- 
trial resources was increasing its wealth, and this increase 
in turn was developing the intellectual and spiritual 
power of the people. In response to the increasing de- 
mand for higher education, a veritable renaissance set in. 
Colleges multiplied alike for men and women. Graduate 
departments came into existence to meet the need for 
advanced and specialized instruction. New sciences 
opened up attractive vistas and promises of almost un- 
limited power. The new psychology and the newly 
organized social sciences led into absorbing fields of thought 
hitherto practically unknown. New ideals had dawned 
upon the colleges themselves and the passion for social 
service was born. 

But this was merely one phase of the general enrich- 
ment of life. There had been art and artists during the 
earlier part of the century, as the names of Copley, West, 
and Stuart testify, but art had never been an organic part 
of the national life. "The Puritan immigrants of New 



40 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

England had all the abhorrence of art which had marked 
the followers of the Reformation, and for two centuries 
the bare, whitewashed walls of their plain meeting-houses 
were eloquent in protest against the art adornment of 
ancient church or chapel," says Isaac Clarke in "Educa- 
tion in the United States." "Nor did the long, hard 
struggle to wrest sustenance from stony soil or stormy 
sea afford any space of leisure for those artistic occupa- 
tions that to the stern Puritan were worse than folly," 
he says further. As a result, however, of indirect causes 
too complex for analysis here, and the immediate stimulus 
of the Philadelphia Exposition, an immediate wave of 
art enthusiasm spread over the country, which during the 
past quarter century has been steadily increasing. In 
1870 there were but ten institutions in the country that 
gave any form of art instruction, but four art museums, 
and a complete poverty of art treasures of any kind. In 
1880 the number of art schools had increased to over 
thirty, and there had been a corresponding increase in 
the number of museums and galleries. Before the cen- 
tury closed one hundred seventeen art schools and forty- 
one art galleries had been established. Some of the schools 
and galleries have an international reputation. 

The demand for art knowledge and instruction that had 
brought about such results had been fostered in part by 
the schools themselves, in part by art exhibitions and 
lectures, and in part by the first-hand acquaintance with 
the world's great masterpieces, gained by the increasing 
army of tourists to the historic galleries of Europe. It 



41 

was strengthened by the growing number of American 
students who sought abroad the opportunities that their 
own country did not yet afford, and who upon their return 
taught in new forms the great ministry of beauty to the 
life of humanity. This sudden awakening of thousands 
to the significance of the world's art treasures can only be 
compared to that other period in the world's life when a 
young and virile people came into unexpected possession 
of the priceless heritage of Greek and Roman thought. 
Samuel Isham says in the "History of American Painting " : 
" Taking a whole nation whose ideals, although high, had 
hitherto been purely material, intellectual, and moral, 
and endowing it with a perception of the beauties of art 
is an accomplishment without any parallel — at least on 
so large a scale." That the art appreciation of the people 
as a whole is still undeveloped must be admitted, but the 
value of art as a stimulus to the higher spiritual life will 
never again be questioned. 

Along with the awakening to the value of pictorial and 
decorative art came a like awakening in the world of 
music. The value of music as a factor in elementary 
education had been recognized for a generation before 
pictorial art had been accorded such recognition, and 
there had been a gradual growth in musical taste and 
feeling instead of a sudden awakening to its significance. 
There had been much seed-sowing in the musical field 
during the generation that had passed since Lowell Mason 
had secured the introduction of music into the public 
schools of Boston in 1838, and the harvest surpassed in 



42 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

richness the hopes of even the most sanguine. "There 
are few periods in the history of any country in which the 
progress of art has been so rapid as the progress of music 
since the Civil War," says Mathews in the "History of 
American Music." The war had been a great awakener 
of mind and it had stirred the emotional life of the people 
to its very depths. This gave a power of interpretation 
that comes only from profound spiritual experiences. 
Before this time the centers of musical life and interest 
had been in the East — in New York and Boston chiefly. 
The interest now spread to all parts of the country, and it 
was not long before Cincinnati and Chicago rivaled their 
sister cities in musical appreciation and in the opportunities 
offered for musical study. Musical societies were organ- 
ized everywhere, and the musical masterpieces of the world, 
like the great masterpieces of painting and sculpture, 
came to have a significance for thousands to whom they 
had hitherto been but names. It was at this time that the 
conservatories and colleges of music now to be found in 
every large city, were founded and began to vie with the 
art schools in interest and prophecy of a fuller develop- 
ment for the youth of the land. "In these musical ambi- 
tion and talent found opportunity for improvement, and for 
the acquisition of knowledge of the higher walks of art," 
says Mr. Mathews again. Residence and study in the 
musical centers of Europe on the part of many added to the 
insight gained, and raised the general standard of musical 
intelligence among the people at large. Since the themes 
of the great masterpieces deal with the fundamental ex- 



PERIOD or extension; characteristics 43 

periences of human life or portray vital facts of Chris- 
tianity, this growth of art insight could not but deepen and 
enrich the emotional and spiritual life of the people. In 
the growing insight into and appreciation of the aesthetic, 
the foundations for a more fundamental education were 
being laid. 

While the life of the people was thus gaining in emotional 
power along the aesthetic lines, it was taking on added 
richness in another direction, having apparently little 
relation either to art or to education, but in reality having 
the most profound significance for both. The ethical 
and religious life of the people was undergoing a gradual 
change, — one that to many seemed an undermining of the 
very foundations of the social order, but that to others 
meant the reestablishing of faith and virtue upon a deeper 
and firmer foundation. Ever since civil authority had 
supplanted ecclesiastical authority in the control of educa- 
tion, fears had been expressed for the moral safety of 
American life. A half century or more of nonsectarian 
education had, however, shown no such falling off in public 
morals as might have been expected if morality were de- 
pendent upon instruction in religious dogma. But while 
such instruction is no guarantee of character there must be a 
foundation of spiritual life, both in the individual and in the 
nation — a recognition of the moral law and an obedience 
to it. That the religion of creeds and observances is on 
the wane — among Protestants at least — none will deny ; 
that there has been a compensating gain is becoming 
increasingly evident to all who are in touch with ethical 



44 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

and religious thought and the application of that thought 
to social conditions and problems. This gain has come in 
large part from the gradual reconstruction of religious 
thought necessitated by the doctrine of evolution. A new 
order of thinking and new motives to conduct could not 
but result from the acceptance of the view that man, as 
the highest expression of the omnipresent and eternal 
energy manifested in the universe, is ideally akin to that 
energy— God, and "if not made, at least making in the 
divine image;" that the moral law is the law of man's 
highest nature, and that the existence of such a law is 
evidence of a moral order in which humanity is grounded ; 
that sin had its origin in the animal inheritance from which 
man is gradually emerging; and that redemption is the 
perfect and final emergence from the animal into the 
spiritual state. Such an interpretation of the fundamental 
doctrines of Christianity carried with it social implications 
that are far reaching in their consequences. It gave a 
new dignity to humanity, and brought with it a new sense 
of human brotherhood. It created a clearer vision of the 
kingdom of God on earth, and carried with it the conviction 
that the coming of that kingdom depended upon the agencies 
that society could put into operation, and could be hastened 
in no small degree. It brought with it a new and deepened 
sense of social obligation and a broader recognition of 
human rights. It resulted in the extension of social 
interest that is expressed in the social settlement and 
kindred institutions. Combined with influences from other 
sources it set the currents of present-day thought in the 



period of extension; characteristics 45 

direction of social betterment and thus created the "social 
movement. " 

It is the new insight into the social significance of Christ's 
teaching that has brought the church face to face with new 
and intricate problems. To the question whether the 
church could, if she would, undertake the whole problem 
of man's salvation — material as well as spiritual — to 
which the interpretation in question seems to point, the 
institutional church is the provisional answer. Rev. 
Josiah Strong says in a recent article on the institutional 
church in Current Literature: "Many fail to perceive the 
profound importance of the religious changes which are 
taking place or to suspect that they are destined to produce 
a new type of civilization. For many years the church 
laid emphasis on man's relation to God, and forgot to 
emphasize his relation to man. The new emphasis laid 
upon the social teachings of Jesus is bringing a new order 
of civilization." The present problems of the church are 
therefore twofold : She must interpret her fundamental 
principles upon a new basis ; and she must reorganize and 
enlarge her forms of activity. The passing from the old to 
the new ideals and forms of effort is no easy process, but 
the end toward which present thought is tending is becom- 
ing increasingly clear and results cannot but follow. 

It is in part because the program of social reform that 
present conditions demand could not be undertaken by 
any church or federation of churches; and in part be- 
cause of the growth of social interest and responsibility 
among the people at large, that philanthropic work, 



46 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

public and private, has assumed increasing importance and 
aroused increasing interest during the past few years. 
Charity had always existed and agencies for the relief of 
suffering in some of its many iorms had been organized 
from time to time. But the increasing need for philan- 
thropic effort which is due to a multiplicity of causes tend- 
ing to the deterioration of life in the large cities, could not 
but challenge the thoughtful to a study of the conditions 
and spur to more serious effort the increasing enthusiasm 
for social reform. A study of conditions so complex 
called, however, for training of the highest order, and the 
rendering of efficient social service required a preparation 
not to be acquired by ordinary courses or methods. The 
growing recognition of these facts resulted in the establish- 
ment of departments of sociology in all the larger universi- 
ties, and in gradually adding courses in social economics. 
This movement, combined with that successfully carried 
out in all the larger cities, — the organization of all relief 
agencies, secular and religious, into a Charity Organization 
Society, — will ultimately create a system of social better- 
ment commensurate with the importance of the task. As 
the social and industrial life becomes more integrated, 
the improvement in material conditions is so interwoven 
with the development of higher ideals and the enrichment 
of the spiritual life that the two cannot be effectively pro- 
vided for except through the cooperated effort that such 
an organization implies. Tenement and sanitary reform, 
improvement in the conditions of labor, protection from 
communicable diseases, the care of the destitute sick — 






period of extension; characteristics 47 

these and other forms of effort for social betterment are 
not only good in themselves, but also serve as important 
means of strengthening the moral and spiritual nature. 
The agencies that would relieve the spiritual poverty that 
causes in part the material ills; that would substitute 
thrift, sobriety, and virtue for incompetence, intemperance, 
and vice — do not they contribute materially to the better- 
ment of the life that now is? Philanthropy so organized 
will become what it should be, — one of the great forces 
for the world's salvation. 

It would be little to the credit of the social economist 
and his practical co-worker if the futility of work merely 
curative had not been forced upon him, and if the impor- 
tance of preventive measures had not been recognized. 
That the cure of evil is indirectly preventive must be 
admitted, and much of the work mentioned has been and 
will be preventive in the large sense. But preventive 
work must be positive and direct as well as indirect. 
Such work must always be educational in character, and 
must begin with the children, the true subjects of education. 
It is not strange therefore that philanthropic interest 
should have centered in childhood and in the agencies for 
its salvation. The story of the efforts by which the rights 
of childhood — neglected, dependent, and delinquent — 
have come to be recognized is too long for recital here, 
and the list of charities, public and private, undertaken in 
its behalf too long to enumerate. The founding of societies 
for the prevention of cruelty to children — a check upon 
the ill temper of parents, the passage of laws preventing 



48 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

child labor, and the adoption of the probation system for 
juvenile offenders are of special significance. Childhood 
has other needs, however, than these, — the need for activity, 
inspiration, joy. These, too, modern philanthropy is 
increasingly providing. The city boy is no longer obliged 
to live in the streets ; public playgrounds are being conceded 
as his right. He is not driven to crime from sheer ennui ; 
library doors swing open, and settlement clubs and classes 
invite him to interesting forms of activity. Vacation 
schools, recreation piers, and fresh-air excursions furnish 
him with new experiences and give him an insight into the 
great world in which he must soon take an active part. 
The provision for such needs, pitifully inadequate as it 
still is, forms one of the most interesting chapters in the 
story of "the battle with the slum." Agencies for the 
relief of other kinds of need might have been organized at 
other periods in the world's history ; those for furnishing 
childish happiness could only have been devised in recent 
years. It is significant that all these movements in the 
direction of constructive and preventive philanthropy 
had their origin in this country or were adopted from other 
countries during the years between 1870 and 1890. To- 
gether they contribute an influence for the upbuilding and 
ennobling of character that cannot but produce gratifying 
results in the near future. 

The relation of the movements that have characterized 
American life during the past twenty-five years to ele- 
mentary education in general and to the progress of the 
kindergarten in particular can be readily traced. The 



PERIOD of extension; characteristics 49 

new- spirit in the universities and the consequent enrich- 
ment of the spiritual life of the people was loosening the 
hold of traditionalism and strengthening the new con- 
ception of education. The new sciences in the univer- 
sities and new methods in history and literature revealed 
the emptiness of the elementary curriculum, based upon 
the disciplinary conception of education alone, and the 
need of "content studies" in the grades. The "new 
psychology" and the introduction of courses in education 
into the university curriculum not only gave a more funda- 
mental insight into the nature of the educational process, 
but it dignified education and placed it upon a scientific 
basis. These new insights gave an added significance 
to the kindergarten which embodies the views that were 
coming into the educational consciousness. Up to this 
time educational effort had centered itself mainly with 
the problems incident to the period of organization. From 
1880 on it began to occupy itself fundamentally with the 
problems of educational theory. The last two decades of 
the century became periods of reform and transformation. 

The general development of artistic taste and musical 
intelligence was tending also toward educational reform. 
It seconded the dissatisfaction with the curriculum of 
the Three R's where such a curriculum still prevailed; 
it encouraged the introduction of the aesthetic element 
into education; and it showed an appreciative interest 
in the true purpose of the new studies where these had 
already been introduced. As the kindergarten had 
emphasized the value of beauty in developing the ideal 



50 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

side of a child's life and had insisted upon plants and 
pictures in the kindergarten when there were none as yet 
in the school, its doctrines found particular favor, and an 
era of decorating schoolrooms and beautifying school 
grounds set in. The kindergarten therefore rose in favor 
and its doctrines aroused a new interest. 

But the awakening of the public to the value of beauty 
as a factor in the child's development was not the greatest 
service that the kindergarten rendered to art education. 
The disciples of Froebel had urged their fundamental 
doctrine of creative activity, but the school had been slow 
to understand, and slower still to accept a doctrine so at 
variance with its traditional form of procedure. When 
artists, however, not only recognized the correctness of the 
principle but insisted that all art instruction should be 
based upon it, the public began to wake up. Verily, the 
stone that the educational builders rejected has become 
the head of the corner in the educational structure. It 
is in this particular respect that the kindergarten has 
been a positive influence in the transformation of the 
school. 

The advancing musical intelligence likewise made 
itself felt in elementary education. The early musical 
work in the public schools bad been confined almost 
wholly to teaching the musical notation. It was now 
seen that this was not the true foundation for a musical 
education, that music must be given a meaning to the 
child, and that a love of song must be developed before 
instruction in musical notation could have any signifi- 



period of extension; characteristics 51 

cance. In other words, it was recognized that music, 
like representative art, must begin in feeling and intelli- 
gence, and not in technique. Although the music of the 
kindergarten left much to be desired in the early dajs of 
the movement, it was sufficiently different from that of 
the school to attract the attention of musical people and 
to indicate that it was based upon different principles. 
They recognized in the child's song, taught by rote, a 
means of cultivating his love of music, and in the various 
piano exercises a means of cultivating his musical intelli- 
gence and power of interpretation. For this reason also 
the kindergarten rose in public esteem. The musical 
teaching of the school has been reconstructed within 
recent years, and the kindergarten has been the determin- 
ing element in that reconstruction. 

Although the new views in religion and ethics and the 
new interest focused upon child saving have influenced 
school work and school methods less directly than have 
the more fundamental study of educational theory and 
the appreciation of the value of the aesthetic, the indirect 
influence of these new views has already been far-reaching. 
The opponents of the public school system have frequently 
pointed out the danger to American life from an education 
without religion. But as the new conceptions prevail, 
they will increasingly pervade educational thought and 
literature, and interpret the educational process as a 
spiritual one. When education has been so conceived, 
every study in the curriculum will contribute to the de- 
velopment of the higher life and the Power that makes 



52 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

for righteousness will be increasingly felt in and through 
the whole educational process. When teachers are 
inspired by such an insight, the absence of dogmatic in- 
struction will not even be felt, for the purpose of education 
— the development of character — will have been at- 
tained. When this view of education — essentially the 
Froebeliart view — was first presented, it seemed visionary 
and impracticable to all but the illumined few; the 
Froebelian emphasis upon the divinity of human nature 
seemed little short of sacrilege to those who had been 
accustomed to the doctrine of innate depravity only. 
Current interpretations of Christianity are quite in accord 
with the views which the kindergarten presents, however, 
and the kindergarten student not infrequently hears the 
doctrine presented in the class room reenforced from the 
pulpit. The larger acceptance of these views has given 
added weight to the philosophy of Froebel and to the 
kindergarten as its embodiment. Here, too, the kinder- 
garten has been a positive influence. In the stimulus it 
has given to the progress of liberal views and to the study 
of the idealistic philosophy of which it is the outcome, it 
has not only paid a debt to philosophy and religion, but 
it has also been a means of enriching the life and thought 
of the country of its adoption. 

The "social movement" with its interest in the agencies 
for child saving has had a more direct bearing upon the 
methods of the school than have the newer interpretations 
of religious doctrine. That a child's school work is 
affected by the character of his home and environment 



CHARACTERISTICS 53 

every teacher knows. That teachers have any moral 
responsibility for the lives of their pupils outside of 
schoolroom walls and schoolroom hours, that they have any 
responsibility for the social regeneration of the neighbor- 
hood in which their work lies, should such regenerating 
be needed, many of them, principals and superintendents 
included, would practically deny. It is not so specified 
in the bond of the school rules. It is just this responsi- 
bility that the forces organized for the betterment of child- 
hood are trying to bring home to the conscience of the 
school. That the school has advanced by leaps and 
bounds during the past quarter century is readily granted. 
That its organization is on the whole good; that its 
curriculum possesses an interest it did not possess during 
the earlier period; and that its spirit and methods are 
constantly improving, none will deny. Its weakness lies 
in its failure to recognize its social and moral obligation 
to the neighborhood of which it is a part. Its aim is still 
largely intellectual and its duties too largely the duties 
of the schoolroom only. That social settlement clubs 
and classes, summer camps, vacation schools, and other 
similar agencies, frequently reach and quicken the lives 
of children with whom the school has failed is a matter 
of frequent comment. With due recognition of the diffi- 
culties of philanthropic effort arising from the limitation 
of the teacher's time and strength, the question may still 
be asked whether the passion for human betterment that 
has made itself so noticeably felt in the life of the people 
at large during the past two decades has permeated the 



54 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

school to the extent that it should. That something has 
come of the public agitation and interest is evident. The 
changes in the curriculum — the introduction of sewing, 
cooking, and manual training in general — are in part 
a response to this spirit. School authorities have aided in 
securing child labor legislation and in enforcing its appli- 
cation. They have cooperated with probation officers 
in eliminating juvenile crime, and with municipal author- 
ities for the establishment of public parks and play- 
grounds. They have given active support to school 
decoration and outdoor art societies in beautifying school- 
rooms and grounds, and in some instances have assisted 
in organizing school children's lunch stations. They 
have cooperated with social settlements and women's 
clubs in carrying on vacation schools and in many instances 
have eventually assumed their support. But the cry of 
the children is still heard. Here too the kindergarten 
has been a positive influence. In creating a new attitude 
toward childhood; in cooperating with the home to secure 
the best conditions for the child's development ; in active 
efforts for the establishment of playgrounds, vacation 
schools, and similar agencies for children of all ages, the 
kindergartners of the country have contributed in no 
small degree to the cultivation of the philanthropic spirit 
in the teaching ranks. A more complete discussion of the 
service the kindergarten has rendered to education in this 
respect is reserved for the following chapters. 



CHAPTER V 

The Period of Extension; Kindergarten Associa- 
tions and Women's Clubs 

The kindergarten in the early eighties was still in its 
experimental stage; it had demonstrated its value, but 
as yet to the few only. Before its general acceptance by 
the school system could be expected, an important work 
still needed to be done in its behalf. The movement 
needed to be illustrated on a large scale in strategic localities, 
and the value of the kindergarten as a child-saving agency 
demonstrated. To meet this need a new agency came 
into existence in all the larger cities, and in many of the 
smaller ones — the kindergarten association. Now that 
kindergartens have become general and departments for 
kindergarten training have been established in many state 
normal schools and other educational institutions, the 
important part that kindergarten associations have played 
in furthering the kindergarten movement is in danger of 
being lost sight of. The history of kindergarten progress 
would neither be intelligible nor complete, however, 
without a record of the service that such associations have 
rendered, not to the kindergarten alone but to education 
in general. They have differed in aim and scope, in the 
degree of influence exerted, in the method of procedure, 

55 



56 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

and in the results accomplished, but their service in 
awakening educational thought and stimulating educa- 
tional progress has been of inestimable value in American 
life. Some of these associations considered their work 
done when the kindergarten was incorporated into the 
school system. This was the case in Philadelphia, 
where thirty kindergartens were turned over to the city 
authorities by the Sub-Primary School Society, after six 
years of effort. Some associations affiliated themselves 
with the school authorities of their locality when these 
were ready to adopt the kindergarten, and cooperated 
with them in kindergarten maintenance and supervision, 
considering the cause best served in this manner. This 
plan has been successfully carried out by the Pittsburg 
and Allegheny Kindergarten Association. Still others 
organized to undertake a work supplementary to that of 
the school, whether or not the kindergarten was included 
in the school system. Such was the purpose for which 
the two associations in San Francisco were formed. 
Many of the associations formed in the early eighties are 
still in existence, although as a result of changed conditions 
their work has changed materially. 

Kindergarten associations had been organized in a few 
cities before 1880, but the decade between 1880 and 1890 
may appropriately be called the Association Decade in 
kindergarten history. Such associations had been or- 
ganized in Milwaukee in 1870, and the establishment of 
kindergartens in the three German-English academies of 
that city was the result of their effort. As far as can be 



period of extension; associations and clubs 57 

learned, California was the next to organize associations 
for the advancement of the kindergarten cause. The 
San Francisco Public Kindergarten Society was formed 
in 1878, and the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association 
of the same city two years later. The Cincinnati Kinder- 
garten Association was organized in 1879, and the Froebel 
Association and the Free Kindergarten Association of 
Chicago in 1880. From that date on kindergarten associa- 
tions were organized in the larger cities of the country, 
as nearly as can be learned, in the following order: The 
Sub-Primary School Society of Philadelphia in 1881 ; 
the Des Moines Kindergarten Association in 1882; the 
Indianapolis Free Kindergarten and Children's Aid 
Society, the Milwaukee Mission Kindergarten Association 
and the Kindergarten Association of Portland, Oregon, 
in 1884; the Los Angeles Kindergarten Association in 
1885; the Kindergarten Association of St. Paul, Minn., 
of Providence, R.I., and of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1886; 
the Free Kindergarten Association of Louisville, Ky., in 
1887; the Kindergarten Association of Albany, N.Y., 
and of New Orleans, La., in 1888 ; the New York Kinder- 
garten Association, the Detroit Day Nursery and Kinder- 
garten Association, the Denver, Col., Kindergarten As- 
sociation, and the Kindergarten Association of Asheville, 
N.C., in 1889; the Kindergarten Association of Grand 
Rapids, Mich., and that of Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1890; 
the Kindergarten Association of Buffalo, N.Y., and of 
Minneapolis, Minn., in 1891 ; the Kindergarten Associa- 
tion of Galveston, Texas, of Charleston, S.C., and the 



58 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Pittsburg and Allegheny Associations in 1892 ; the Isabel 
Crow Kindergarten Association of St. Louis, Mo., the 
Kindergarten Association of Spokane, Wash., and the 
Columbian Kindergarten Association of Washington, 
D.C., in 1893. As the movement progressed other 
cities too numerous to mention organized similar associa- 
tions. In 1897 the Commissioner of Education gave a 
list of over four hundred, and stated that a very large 
number of others had failed to respond to the request 
for information. 

In spite of the differences in plan and purpose already 
referred to, the general aims of the kindergarten associa- 
tions, wherever located, were much the same. These 
were at least threefold: to furnish helpful suggestions 
to young mothers in meeting the problems that their own 
children presented; to establish kindergartens and thus 
to advance the kindergarten cause; and to carry out 
a philanthropy that was increasingly felt to be necessary. 
These purposes were more or less interwoven. The 
study of childhood from the standpoint of Froebel's 
philosophy could not but lead to a higher appreciation 
of the kindergarten, and a desire for its extension and the 
establishment of kindergartens in needy districts was the 
most effective method at that time devised to carry out 
the desired philanthropy. The work of a kindergarten 
association, therefore, appealed to different classes of 
people and satisfied several different interests. Its work 
was shaped by these interests, though one phase or the 
other usually predominated. 



period of extension; associations and clubs 59 

Among the lines of work carried on, the mothers' classes 
must be given the first place. The serious discussion of 
the fundamental problems of motherhood and childhood 
from the viewpoint of Froebel opened up a new world of 
thought to many. It gave a new meaning to life and led 
to the formation of higher ideals and nobler purposes. 
The inspiration that the kindergarten association gave to 
thousands of young mothers was one of the reasons for its 
success. But this was not all. From the impulse first 
given by kindergarten associations to the study of child- 
hood and the training for motherhood have come move- 
ments of national importance. The growing interest in 
the problems of child training led to the holding of a 
Mothers' Conference in Chicago in 1894, lasting for several 
days, under the auspices of the Chicago Kindergarten 
College. This proved so valuable that several similar 
conferences have been held since. The National Con- 
gress of Mothers, which held its first meeting in Washing- 
ton, D.C., in 1897, was the indirect outgrowth of the 
interest thus aroused. Work of this character, whether na- 
tional or local, could not but lead to a study of educational 
problems from other viewpoints than that of the home. 
It brought parents and teachers together for the discussion 
of mutual problems and enlarged the views of each. The 
results of this movement and the women's club move- 
ment of more recent years have given to American women 
an insight into educational problems that has done much 
to further the interests of education in the school. 

The deepening insight into the problems of childhood 



60 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

to which the mothers' study classes gave rise during the 
early years of the kindergarten movement was the founda- 
tion for the enthusiasm with which the second purpose 
of the kindergarten association — the establishment of 
kindergartens — was carried on. The whole kindergarten 
movement in Chicago has grown out of a class formed by 
Mrs. Alice H. Putnam in 1874 for the study of Froebel. 
The class grew into a kindergarten association whose two 
hundred members were "all intelligent students of the 
kindergarten philosophy and practice." An acquaintance 
with the practical working of a "mission kindergarten" 
would not fail to give these early students a new insight 
into the meaning of the kindergarten as an institution and 
lead them to place a higher estimate upon its principles. 
It could not but stimulate an interest in the kindergarten 
as such, its success elsewhere and its ultimate adoption 
by the school. It invited comparison between the methods 
of the kindergarten and those of the school, and thus gave 
an added impetus to the influences that were already 
tending toward its transformation. 

The acquaintance with the work of mission kinder- 
gartens for which the kindergarten association gave the 
opportunity had other results of an entirely different 
character but of the greatest importance to the develop- 
ment of American womanhood and the ideals of American 
life. The general public of the early eighties was not so 
familiar with the story of poverty in the large cities as it 
has since become, and the contact with poverty-stricken 
childhood, incompetent motherhood, and homes that were 



PERIOD of extension; associations and clubs 6 1 

hardly such even in name brought to many women a reve- 
lation of existing social conditions that was nothing less 
than startling. "The story of the slum was beginning to 
be told," but its significance had not been realized. The 
stirrings of the "social movement" were beginning to be 
felt, however, and the desire to know "how the other half 
lives" was awakening. No adequate agencies had existed, 
however, by which that desire could be gratified, — 
slumming parties belonging to a later date, — and no 
satisfactory means had seemed to be at hand to relieve 
the conditions which were said to exist. The kinder- 
garten association seemed therefore to meet the need of 
the hour. It afforded opportunity in part for the ac- 
quaintance with conditions that must precede intelligent 
effort for relief, and furnished an agency by which an 
amelioration of some of the conditions could be effected. 
An idea of this phase of association work can be gained 
from the following description by Miss Constance McKen- 
zie of work done in Philadelphia during the early years 
of the kindergarten movement. 

"The touch of the kindergarten upon the home had 
a humanizing effect which appeared nothing short of 
remarkable. One short street, at that time reputed to be 
among the worst in the city, was in some respects practi- 
cally transformed by the home visits and the reflex in- 
fluence of the kindergarten children. At the time when 
the kindergarten began its unobtrusive crusade in that 
neighborhood, to walk through the street meant to invite 
an assault upon four of the five senses, as well as upon 



62 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

one's sense of decency. The place and the people were 
filthy ; the conversation was unfit to listen to ; the odors 
were appalling. By and by, however, a change became 
noticeable. The newspapers, apologetic substitutes for 
glass, disappeared from many broken window-panes, and 
old cans, sweet with green things growing, took their 
places. Chairs were cleaned when 'teacher' was an- 
nounced, and by and by the rooms were kept brushed up 
to greet her unexpected coming. After a while the 
children's work, first discarded as trash, began to assume 
an extrinsic value — the walls must be fresh to receive it. 
The children insisted upon clean clothes to be worn to 
kindergarten, and a general if dingy wash followed. In 
the evening fathers found a sufficient entertainment in 
the children's singing to keep them home from the grog 
shop ; then the beer money was diverted, and found its 
way to the Penny Savings' Fund, through the child's 
little bankbook. The street people began to hush their 
talk as the kindergartner or the neighborhood visitor went 
by. The kindergarten children could be distinguished 
in the street, singing the songs and playing the games, 
and so potent was the effect of their small public opinion 
that their refusal to enter into the coarser street romps 
with the non-kindergartners brought many a child into 
the kindergarten who had been wont to stand at the door 
to hoot and run. Lessons of cleanliness, thrift, and trust 
were learned through experience and communicated to 
the homes through the insistence of the children and the 
friendly home talks of the kindergartners. The early 



63 

stony indifference of the parents gave way to mild curiosity 
as to 'what the kindergartner would do next.' This 
melted into astonishment that she could make Johnny 
mind without using the strap. Then followed interest 
in John's gentler manner, compunction over his uncon- 
scious condemnation of the mother's way of doing things, 
and a shamefaced determination to do as ' the kindergar- 
ten teacher did,' until a new atmosphere pervaded many 
a home which at first sight had seemed irredeemable." 

The face-to-face contact with social conditions which 
the work of a kindergarten association thus occasioned 
could not fail to awaken new interest and shape action in 
new directions. As the child study work had led associa- 
tion members into the field of general education and to an 
acquaintance with the leaders of educational thought, 
so the first-hand acquaintance with the problems of pov- 
erty led to a study of sociological literature and to a 
cooperation with philanthropists and social reformers. 
The interests thus developed have contributed materially 
to the growth of the social movement and to the ad- 
vancement of philanthropy. Women have played no 
small part in the establishment of the newer forms of 
philanthropic work of the preventive and constructive 
kind, such as vacation schools, playgrounds, and social 
settlements. The kindergarten association was in fact 
a social settlement in embryo, and the kindergarten as 
such forms one of the chief agencies in the social settle- 
ment as it now exists. 

The practical work for which a kindergarten associa- 



64 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

tion was organized could not be adequately carried on 
without the organization and maintenance of a training 
school from which its supply , of kindergarten workers 
could be recruited. The successful management of 
a mission kindergarten demanded a kindergartner of 
experience and more than ordinary ability, but young 
women without previous experience or training and of 
a lesser degree of ability could serve in the capacity of 
assistants. The novelty and interest of the work led 
many young women to offer themselves as candidates for 
kindergarten training in the early days, not alone such as 
hoped to find in kindergartning the means of gaining 
a livelihood, but those who undertook the work from 
philanthropic motives only, and who expected no re- 
muneration for their services. The work of the training 
course shaped itself to meet these conditions. Since 
workers were needed in the kindergartens and practical 
experience with the children must necessarily constitute an 
important part of the training, the candidates were as- 
signed to actual work in the kindergarten from the time 
that they entered the course, and continued such work 
until it was finished. This necessitated the placing of all 
the studies of the course in the afternoon and in placing 
the emphasis upon the technical ones, — the mother plays, 
and the gifts and occupations. As the main purpose of 
these studies was to meet the immediate needs of the 
students in their work with the children, the work was of 
necessity fragmentary. As kindergarten training schools 
grew, instruction in music and drawing was added ; later, 



PERIOD OF extension; associations and clubs 65 

courses in nature study, physical culture, and story-telling 
were introduced and, later still, courses in psychology, 
literature, and other subjects. 

The establishment of kindergarten training departments 
in normal schools and other institutions in recent years 
has opened up a whole series of questions concerning the 
organization of kindergarten training courses. From 
the standpoint of pedagogical principle the apprentice 
form of training, which the exigencies of a kindergarten 
association necessitated, cannot be defended, and it has 
of late received no little criticism. The training of this 
character was the only form of training to be had until 
recently, however, as the private training schools were 
organized upon the same basis. What the instruction in 
such schools lacked in scholarship, however, it made up 
in other respects. Judged by the spirit of the kinder- 
gartner toward childhood and her skill in meeting its 
problems; by her enthusiasm for the cause under whose 
banner she had enlisted ; and by her spirit of helpfulness 
toward those who needed help, the training was successful 
in its highest sense. The young women who took the 
training found in it both inspiration and help. It im- 
pressed upon them the need and value of preparation for 
motherhood, and the necessity for courses in domestic 
science and child study in women's colleges. The train- 
ing received in the association training schools was an 
indirect training in philanthropy, and impressed the 
students with their moral obligation to childhood and to 
the community. That the work was felt to be valuable 



66 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

is shown by the fact that many schools, organized originally 
to meet local needs, outgrew these and attained a wide 
reputation. Students came from enlarging areas, and 
graduates from the larger schools may be found in nearly 
every state in the union. The names of Mrs. Alice H. 
Putnam, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Patty S. Hill, Caroline 
M. C. Hart, Mrs. Eliza A. Blaker, and many others, 
superintendents of kindergarten associations and principals 
of association training schools, are known to every kinder- 
gartner in the land. 

In building up kindergarten sentiment throughout the 
country perhaps no one person has done more than Mrs. 
Kate Douglas Wiggin, and the work of no kindergarten 
associations is better known that that of the two San 
Francisco associations identified respectively with the 
names of Mrs. Wiggin and Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, now 
deceased. The kindergarten had gained a foothold in 
Los Angeles in 1875.. One of the. first young women to 
take a kindergarten course was Kate Douglas Smith, 
now known the world over as Kate Douglas Wiggin. 
When in 1878 the San Francisco Kindergarten Society 
was organized, Miss Smith was called to take the leader- 
ship. "That interest in the kindergarten grew under 
the direction of this gifted leader was but natural," says 
Miss Fisher in the Report of the Commissioner of Educa- 
tion. "No single individual has done more to spread 
kindergarten influence and to gain friends for the cause 
than the author of ' The Story of Patsy.' No kindergarten 
has enjoyed a wider celebrity and achieved greater success 



PERIOD of extension; associations and clubs 67 

among the children and in their homes than the celebrated 
Silver Street Kindergarten, conducted by Mrs. Wiggin 
and her sister, Nora A. Smith. The work done at Silver 
Street was the mainspring of all subsequent work in 
California." 

The work so auspiciously begun by Mrs. Wiggin was 
the stimulus to the organization of the Golden Gate 
Kindergarten Association, identified in the public mind 
with the name of its founder and president, Mrs. Sarah B. 
Cooper. Mrs. Cooper was a woman of rare power and 
influence, who had been identified with every phase of 
philanthropic work, but whose great mission — "to lay 
the foundation for a better national character by founding 
free kindergartens for neglected children" — was re- 
vealed to her by a single morning's visit to the Silver 
Street Kindergarten. Under her auspices a kindergarten 
was organized and was supported by the members of her 
Bible class. As the work grew, the association con- 
nected with her name was formed. Her influence brought 
legacies and donations from many sources. No phil- 
anthropic association has supported so many kinder- 
gartens or expended so much money. The first legacy 
of $20,000 was followed by an endowment fund of $100,000 
from Mrs. Leland Stanford, who later contributed $20,000 
more. Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst was equally generous. 
In 1 89 1, $30,000 was contributed to this association alone; 
in 1900 it was estimated that the association had received 
in legacies and donations not less than $500,000. At 
the time of its greatest prosperity it supported forty-four 



68 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

kindergartens, and at the time of Mrs. Cooper's death, 
in 1896, it had conferred its benefits upon eighteen thou- 
sand children. The effect of such work upon the educa- 
tional tone of California is incalculable. 

The work of kindergarten associations in illustrating 
kindergarten ideals and methods, in organizing an 
effective means for the moral salvation of neglected child- 
hood, and in securing the incorporation of the kinder- 
garten into the school system, has been admirably sup- 
plemented by the efforts of individuals in different parts of 
the country. The work of some of these antedated the 
foundation of all but the earliest kindergarten associa- 
tions, and doubtless stimulated their formation and growth. 
The first charity kindergarten in the United States was 
established in 1870, as has been stated, in connection with 
the Poppenhausen Institution at College Point, New York. 
The kindergartners employed were trained in Germany, 
and the provision was the most liberal in every way. In 
1874 Mr. S. H. Hill, of Florence, Mass., contributed 
funds to open a charity kindergarten and later placed 
in trust a sum sufficient to sustain and extend the work. 
The largest and most significant individual charity in 
behalf of the kindergarten cause was that supported by 
Mrs. Pauline Agassiz Shaw of Boston, the daughter of 
Louis Agassiz. Having opened two kindergartens during 
the summer of 1877, and having satisfied herself of their 
value, Mrs. Shaw concluded that the kindergarten cause 
needed her support. "This was the beginning of a work 
unparalleled for public spirit and liberality and to which 



PERIOD OF extension; associations and clubs 69 

must be attributed the growth and final adoption of the 
kindergarten throughout New England," says Miss Fisher. 
Under the guidance of Miss Laliah B. Pingree, and sup- 
ported by Mrs. Shaw's liberality, the kindergartens grew 
and prospered and became a power in the community. 
In 1883 Mrs. Shaw supported thirty-one kindergartens in 
Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline. No effort was 
spared to make these kindergartens the best of their kind. 
Through lectures by specialists on many subjects the 
kindergartners were provided with opportunities for 
advanced study. After supporting these kindergartens 
for ten years, Mrs. Shaw invited the school board of Boston 
to investigate their value and to consider their adoption 
into the public schools. As they had shown their value 
with the children, the board assumed the responsibility, 
and in 1888 kindergartens became an integral part of the 
Boston public school system. The report of the Boston 
School Committee says: "The wise and far-sighted 
generosity of these public-spirited women deserves to 
place them among the greatest benefactors of our schools. 
The school board has especially conveyed to them its 
grateful appreciation of their noble work, and the com- 
munity which receives the benefit of all that they have 
accomplished should hold their memory in lasting regard." 
This in substance is the story of the kindergarten in Bos- 
ton, as told by Miss Fanny L. Johnson, in The Kinder- 
garten Review. 

The city of Washington has also profited by the public 
spirit of a noble woman. Kindergarten effort at the 



70 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

national capital dates back to the early years of the move- 
ment, but it has received special reenforcement during 
the last decade of the century through the generosity of 
Mrs. Phcebe A. Hearst. The introduction of the kinder- 
garten into the Washington public schools is the result 
of two influences, — that of Mrs. Louisa Mann, daughter- 
in-law of the great educator, and that of the Columbian 
Kindergarten Association, organized in 1893 for the 
purpose of inducing Congress to effect legislation to that 
end. Mrs. Hearst, Mrs. Cleveland, and several other 
prominent women were active members of this associa- 
tion, and it was in connection with it that Mrs. Hearst's 
greatest gift to the kindergarten cause was made. Her 
donations to the cause had already been scattered far and 
wide. Seven of the kindergartens of the Golden Gate 
Kindergarten Association of San Francisco, and many 
others in other western states, were supported by her. 
Among her gifts to San Francisco was a perfectly equipped 
building for training purposes. Her principal gift to 
Washington was a training school, opened in 1897. The 
home of this school was described by a recent writer as 
attractive and artistic. It had an excellent reference 
library, and the course of training was supplemented by 
lectures given by the best specialists in the country. As 
these lectures were open to the kindergartners of the city, 
as well as to the students in training, the school became 
the center of kindergarten interest in Washington. Mrs. 
Hearst was obliged to withdraw her support from the 
undertaking in 1905, but the results remain. 



period of extension; associations and clubs 71 

Although these contributions to the kindergarten cause 
are doubtless the most notable ones, many a city in the 
land can point to evidences of contributions as generous 
in proportion to the donor's means. Some of these dona- 
tions have been made independently, v/hile others have 
been made in connection with kindergarten associations, 
churches, or charitable organizations. The William N. 
Jackson Memorial Building, the permanent home of the 
Indianapolis Free Kindergarten Association, was a gift 
to the cause. Beautiful buildings for kindergarten 
purposes have been contributed to the cause also in 
Asheville, N.C., in Youngstown, Ohio, and in Spokane, 
Wash. In Topeka, Kan., a building for kindergarten 
purposes was given to a church which had organized and 
supported a kindergarten and training school. Memorial 
and endowed kindergartens are by no means uncommon. 
In 1903 Mrs. Leland Stanford supported six memorial 
kindergartens in San Francisco. The endowment fund 
of nearly $200,000 which Mrs. Stanford contributed to 
the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association has already 
been mentioned. "A generous friend of the children," 
who did not wish his name mentioned, recently gave 
$75,000 as an endowment fund for the Brooklyn Kinder- 
garten Society. These instances are given as illustrations 
of what people of wealth and character have thought it 
worth while to do for the kindergarten movement. 

Similar in general character to the work done for the 
kindergarten movement by kindergarten associations and 
individuals has been the work done by women's clubs. 



72 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Elizabeth Peabody, the apostle of the kindergarten •move- 
ment, was a member of the New England Woman's Club, 
the first club of the kind organized in the United States, 
and at one of the earliest meetings presented the kinder- 
garten as a topic in which women should be fundamentally 
interested. Many other women prominent in kinder- 
garten circles have been equally prominent in club organi- 
zation and club effort. Miss Annie Laws, who was for 
two years the president of the International Kindergarten 
Union, was at the same time an officer of the General 
Federation of Women's Clubs. Many clubs have made 
a study of the kindergarten and others have taken the re- 
sponsibility of kindergarten organization and support, 
either independently or in connection with kindergarten 
associations. Many facts of interest pertaining to the 
work of particular clubs might be cited. The kindergar- 
ten established by the Woman's Club of Chicago was 
declared to be "the nurse and feeder of the intellectual 
and practical life of the club." The organization of the 
General Federation of Women's Clubs has been a great 
stimulus to work of this character, and the systematic 
study of the whole field of education by that great body 
promises much for the newer movements in education in 
the near future. Mrs. Henrotin's report to the National 
Educational Association in 1897 on "What Women's 
Clubs have done for Education" contains some interesting 
data. She reports kindergartens as having been estab- 
lished in several cities through the agency of women's 
clubs, and systematic action having been taken to acquaint 



period of extension; associations and clubs 73 

the uninitiated among club members with the principles 
which underlie kindergarten procedure. The last object 
was accomplished at one state federation meeting by the 
setting apart of a day for the visiting of the kindergartens, 
and following this by a discussion of their value. In 
New Jersey, kindergartens were organized and supported 
through the agency of women's clubs until the school 
boards were sufficiently convinced of their value to adopt 
them as a part of the school system. The women's clubs 
of the District of Columbia appointed a committee to 
present to both houses of Congress a bill to make the 
incorporation of kindergartens into the school system 
possible. This has since been accomplished. In Colo- 
rado the adoption of the kindergarten into the school 
system of several cities has been effected through club 
agency. In Arkansas the State Federation has worked 
in connection with the State Kindergarten Association 
to secure the establishment of a kindergarten training 
school supported by the state. In Beloit, Wis., kinder- 
gartens were established and supported by the Woman's 
Club until the school authorities were ready to adopt 
them. The Woman's Club of Houston, Texas, has 
carried on a kindergarten for several years. Within the 
past few years the Southern Federation of Colored Women, 
of which Mrs. Booker T. Washington was then president, 
adopted the kindergarten as the chief line of work and 
study. In 1902 the colored Women's Clubs of Chicago 
organized kindergartens in several different sections of 
the city, locating them in the colored churches. At least 



74 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

nine kindergartens were thus established and supported. 
Whatever its immediate prospects the kindergarten move- 
ment may certainly hope for ultimate success, having such 
allies as the National Council of Women, the National 
Congress of Mothers, and the General Federation of 
Women's Clubs. 

The value of these efforts of associations, clubs, and in- 
dividuals can hardly be overestimated. In an editorial in 
The Kindergarten Magazine, when there were but seventy- 
five kindergarten associations, Miss Amalie Hofer said: 
" There are seventy-five thoroughly organized kinder- 
garten associations in our states, all existing for the purposes 
of further study, for extending the work in new fields, or 
maintaining its sincerity in old fields. Some of these 
associations comprise prominent citizens who lend their 
influence and money to the movement; others are com- 
posed of kindergartners and teachers who meet under the 
Froebel banner for self-education ; others consist of groups 
of earnest parents who are aiming to create public interest 
in this vital work of child training. These working centers 
form a network from city to city across our continent. 
The self-appointed stewards of the new education are a 
thoroughly organized force, six thousand strong, pledged 
to a modern reformation. The seventy-five officered 
kindergarten associations form a ganglia of vitalizing 
centers throughout our country and constitute what we 
name the kindergarten movement. These centers, each 
of which is illumined by the dedicated lives of strong, 
earnest, aggressive women, push their energies in many 



period of extension; associations and clubs 75 

directions." The number of kindergarten associations 
has multiplied many times, and much has been accom- 
plished for the kindergarten cause since these words were 
written. Women's organizations have done much to 
further the kindergarten movement, but other agencies 
still have contributed to its growth. The service that they 
have rendered will be discussed in succeeding chapters. 



CHAPTER VI 

The Period of Extension; The Kindergarten in 
Church, Sunday School, and Mission Work 

It is no small testimony to the many-sidedness of the 
kindergarten that organizations differing widely in aim and 
character should have adopted the kindergarten as an 
agency for the furthering of their own particular aims. 
That the church should consider it a valuable means of 
carrying on its own work; that the temperance workers 
should hold it well-nigh indispensable ; and that business 
firms should consider it a valuable phase of their welfare 
work, — these things cannot but surprise the uninitiated. 
Each of the agencies named has adopted the kindergarten 
to some extent, and has thereby become unconsciously 
a kindergarten propagandist. That kindergartners and 
kindergarten associations should advocate the kinder- 
garten cause is not surprising. The acceptance of the 
kindergarten by the above-named agencies was, however, 
unlooked-for testimony to its value, and an unsolicited 
aid in acquainting the public with its principles. 

Among the first of the above-named agencies to adopt the 
kindergarten was the church. One of the first churches 
of the country to adopt the kindergarten, if not the first, 
was Trinity Church of Toledo, Ohio ? which in 1877 es- 

76 



period of extension; church work, etc. 77 

tablished a kindergarten as a part of its parish work. 
The Anthon Memorial Church of New York City, of which 
the Rev. R. Heber Newton was pastor, established a kin- 
dergarten in 1878, and the work done under its auspices 
is a striking example of what a church may accomplish 
through kindergarten agency. While the adoption of the 
kindergarten by the church was slow during the early years, 
the movement was steady and quiet, as is shown by the 
fact that during the next decade kindergartens were es- 
tablished in several important foreign mission stations. 
The Golden Gate Kindergarten Association of San 
Francisco, organized in 1880, had its origin in a kinder- 
garten supported by a Bible class connected with the 
Howard Presbyterian Church, under the leadership of 
Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper; and from that time on, until her 
death in 1896, Mrs. Cooper was one of the strongest 
advocates of this phase of church work. The kinder- 
garten has become an accepted agency in the institutional 
church, as it has in the social settlement which is akin to 
it, and the increase in the number of institutional churches 
has in a measure marked the increasing number of church 
kindergartens. There are many churches that support 
kindergartens which are not strictly institutional, but as 
a rule the two go hand in hand. 

That the kindergarten has become an agency in church 
and mission work, and that kindergarten principles are 
being accepted and applied in the Sunday school, is gen- 
erally known, but. little is known concerning the extent to 
which it has been thus adopted. In the list of over four 



78 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

hundred kindergarten associations already referred to, 
over sixty are church associations. This does not, how- 
ever, indicate the number of church kindergartens. In 
the same report, confessed as inadequate, since "a very 
great number of associations failed to respond to the re- 
quest for information, " Dr. Harris states that at least three 
thousand kindergartens not supported by public school 
funds are known to be in existence, although but about 
half of that number replied to the circular sent out. In a 
list of kindergartens compiled by Miss Clara Louise 
Anderson in 1903, inadequate also for similar reasons, 
the kindergartens not supported by public funds are 
divided into two nearly equal classes, those that are private 
in the sense that tuition is charged or that they are intended 
for a given class of children only ; and those that are free, 
in the sense of being charitable or missionary in character. 
Supposing this proportion to hold in regard to the three 
thousand mentioned, there must be nearly fifteen hundred 
of the mission or charitable class. There is no known 
source of information from which the number of these 
supported by churches can be inferred, but there is evidence 
that three hundred would be a conservative estimate. 
A little definite information comes from Dr. Josiah Strong, 
of the American Bureau of Social Service. He admits 
that "no statistics concerning the number of churches 
throughout the country having kindergartens have ever 
been collected,' ' but states that there are fifty-four such in 
Greater New York, twenty-seven in Philadelphia, and 
twelve in Chicago. A recent item in one of the kinder- 



period of extension; church work, etc. 79 

garten periodicals states that there are ten such in Louis- 
ville, Ky. From the data given by Dr. Harris and Miss 
Anderson it appears that churches in fifty or more cities 
support kindergartens as a part of their church work. 
Every denomination seems represented, — the Roman 
Catholic, the Lutheran, the Jewish, the Friends, the 
Swedenborgian, the Unitarian, and the Christian Scientist, 
as well as the better known Protestant denominations, such 
as the Methodist, Baptist, Congregational, and Presby- 
terian. The Protestant Episcopal Church seems to be in 
the lead in the number of churches supporting kinder- 
gartens. Among the conspicuous examples of churches 
carrying on such work are : the Anthon Memorial Church, 
already mentioned ; St. Bartholomew's Protestant Epis- 
copal, and the Manhattan Congregational of New York 
City; the Every Day Church of Boston; the Central 
Church of Topeka, Kan.; and the People's Church of 
Kalamazoo, Mich. Of special interest is a Chinese 
Presbyterian Mission Church in New York City that sup- 
ports a flourishing kindergarten for Chinese children. 

The auxiliary organizations of the church, such as the 
Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, or such 
organizations as the King's Daughters or the Young 
Women's Christian Association, have also in many instances 
supported kindergartens. This seems to have been a 
favorite form of effort for bands of King's Daughters to 
undertake. In Peoria, 111., there were at one time ten 
such bands, eight of which directed their efforts toward 
kindergarten advancement. In Syracuse, N.Y., the 



80 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Solvay Guild of King's Daughters rendered the kinder- 
garten movement effective service. Very successful work 
has been done by this organization also in Des Moines, 
Iowa, and in Knoxville, Tenn. In Austin, Texas, a 
colored band of King's Daughters did admirable work 
in behalf of the kindergarten. There are doubtless many 
other places where such work has been done. In James- 
town, N.Y., in Richmond, Va., and in Lansing, Mich., the 
kindergarten movement was given its initial impetus by 
the Young Women's Christian Association. In Toledo, 
Ohio, the Unitarian and Episcopal churches at one time 
joined hands with the Women's Christian Temperance 
Union and the local kindergarten workers to further 
the movement. In Birmingham, Ala., a kindergarten is 
supported by a Young Women's Guild. In Detroit a 
kindergarten association has been organized by the Young 
Men's Guild of St. John's Episcopal Church. May 
their names be blazoned abroad and their example widely 
followed. In 1902 the colored women's clubs of Chicago 
established kindergartens in nine of the colored churches. 
In Birmingham, Ala., the Baptist churches support two 
kindergartens. In several instances the work inaugurated 
by the church or some other religious organization has later 
been adopted by the public school authorities. In New 
Orleans the diocese supported a kindergarten and kinder- 
garten training school for five years until the school 
authorities were ready to assume it. In Rochester, N.Y., 
St. Andrews Church for several years likewise supported a 
kindergarten and training school, which the establishment 



PERIOD of extension; church work, etc. 8i 

of kindergartens in the public schools later made unneces- 
sary. The kindergartens of Toledo, Ohio, became a 
part of the city school system after having been fostered 
for several years by religious organizations. In James- 
town, N.Y., in Kalamazoo, Mich., and doubtless in many 
other places public school kindergartens owe their origin 
to church initiative. 

The adoption of the kindergarten as a church agency will 
be determined largely in any given case by the church's 
conception of its mission in a large city. "In a city there 
are two kinds of fields," says the Rev. Edward Judson in 
his book "The Institutional Church." "In one the social 
current seems to converge in favor of the church. Decent, 
Sunday-observing, church-going people are living in the 
neighborhood and all you have to do is to throw open the 
doors of your beautiful church and the people flock in to 
hear your fine preacher and your artistic music. Their 
social life is not complete without a pew in the neighboring 
house of worship. But there is another kind of field. 
Who has not stood aghast and felt in despair as he has 
stopped in one of our great thoroughfares and watched 
the great tide of foreigners streaming ashore from some 
emigrant ship ; alien men, women, and children, chattering 
in a strange language, and bearing uncouth burdens on 
their heads and shoulders. They have come to stay. In 
solid phalanx they take possession of wide stretches of our 
city. They form an impregnable mass of humanity, 
swayed by un-American ideas and habits. Our churches 
retreat before this inflowing tide. But if our aim is to 



82 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

change the character of our community, then we should 
bring to bear upon these masses our best Gospel appliances ; 
our most effective measures will be preventive and educa- 
tional, and our most enduring work will be with the 
children. The key to the hard problem of city evangeli- 
zation lies in the puny hand of the little child." Dr. 
Judson speaks further of the Sunday school as "the church 
with its gearing adapted especially to work with little 
children, " and pays high tribute to its power of reaching 
the children in such localities. "But the Sunday school 
alone is inadequate," he continues. "The sessions are too 
short and too far apart. Currents of sin and worldliness 
sweep between the Sundays and wash away holy impres- 
sions. What headway would we make in teaching arith- 
metic or geography if the lesson came once a week, occupied 
half an hour, and was taught by such incompetent, un- 
trained, and unpaid teachers as are to be found in our 
Sunday school? If we would redeem the children the 
church must have her day school. Let her have a kinder- 
garten which will embrace children from three to seven. 
These are too young to be admitted into the public schools 
and here is a providential opportunity which the church 
has of gathering them into her fold day by day. Let her 
employ a devout and trained kindergartner who shall not 
only educate the child's mind and body with the charming 
symbolic exercises of the kindergarten, but will tell each 
day a little of the story of the life of Christ, and teach the 
children Christian prayers and hymns." 
Views similar to those expressed by Dr. Judson have 



PERIOD of extension; church work, etc. 83 

been voiced by Dr. R. Heber Newton and others. Dr. 
Newton has been one of the most earnest advocates of the 
kindergarten as a church agency. His faith was based 
upon the results accomplished in his own church. Not 
only was the effect of the kindergarten upon the children 
remarkable, but the influence of the kindergarten was 
extended and deepened by means of a training class and 
mothers' meetings until it was recognized as one of the 
most helpful means of building up the church and the 
neighborhood. The social settlement has found the kin- 
dergarten well-nigh indispensable, not only in building up 
character in the children, but also as a means of reaching 
homes that would otherwise be closed, and of bringing 
other members of the family under its influence. Had the 
church realized its social mission there would have been 
little need of settlements. These are doing what the church 
has too frequently failed to do, and they are suggesting ways 
and methods which the church would do well to heed. 

But the kindergarten has a value not alone to the church 
of the kind described, but to the church on the avenue of 
the smaller city. Some of the most admirable examples 
of the church kindergarten are to be found among churches 
of this kind. One of the best examples of the kinder- 
garten in church work is to be found in Topeka, Kan. 
The Central Congregational Church of that city organized 
a kindergarten as one of its working agencies in 1892. 
In discussing the step taken by this church the pastor, 
the Rev. Charles W. Sheldon, said: "When we consider 
the value to a church of work done for children by holding 



84 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

their growing life in close sympathy with church life and 
so educate future supporters of the church, it is surprising 
that the kindergarten has not found its way more quickly 
and generally into church activity. That this lack will 
soon be supplied in the city churches at least, the writer 
is ready to predict with much hopefulness." In describing 
the work of this kindergarten for The Kindergarten Review, 
Dr. Sheldon stated further: "An auxiliary composed of 
ladies of the neighborhood managed the details of ex- 
pense. But the church considers the kindergarten as her 
own child, and is as much in touch with it as it is with the 
Sunday school which is carried on in the same room on 
Sundays. It may be said in this connection that all the 
young life of the church, the Endeavor Society and other 
organizations like it, center in this room together with the 
prayer circle of the church, and thus the room is constantly 
used and permeated with the spiritual energy which stamps 
all the work done there as distinctly and distinctively 
Christian. 

"It is difficult to estimate the value to a church of 
regular kindergarten work carried on under its own roof," 
continues Dr. Sheldon. "The stimulus to the Sunday 
school, to the home, to the mothers, to every part of the 
church life, is instantly and continuously felt. It is the 
great hope and prophecy of the Central Church that other 
churches throughout the state will adopt this youngest 
child of Christian education, the church kindergarten. 
There is a positive advantage to any church to have its 
doors open every day of the week. But more than any- 



PERIOD or extension; church work, etc. 85 

thing else is the immense value to all church growth and 
power gained from the daily presence within its walls and 
surrounded by its spiritual atmosphere, of the children who 
are the hope of the world and the future of the kingdom 
of God." 

This kindergarten is an example for other church kinder- 
gartens in many respects. It has a model room of its own, 
a gift to the church from Mrs. T. E. Bowman, in memory 
of her husband. A training class has been carried on with 
marked success, and the kindergarten movement in the 
state has been materially advanced by the work it has 
done. The Central Congregational Church of Dallas, 
Texas, is organizing a similar work, and there are doubtless 
many other churches that could tell of like work success- 
fully accomplished. The People's Church of Kalamazoo, 
Mich., has had a successful kindergarten in operation for 
several years. This was inaugurated during the pastorate 
of the Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane, and under her leader- 
ship mothers' meetings were held and well attended. A 
special kindergarten is held during the Sunday morning 
service, that mothers who must either take the children to 
church or remain at home may have the benefit of the 
service. That the kindergarten as a phase of church work 
will increase in the near future can no longer be doubted. 
The tendency of the time is toward the establishment of 
institutional churches. In these the kindergarten will 
occupy an increasingly important place. 

The reconstruction of religious thought that has been 
taking place in recent years has been discussed in a pre- 



86 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

vious chapter. The acceptance of religious views akin to 
those of Froebel and the growing recognition of the social 
mission of the church have been influences tending to the 
adoption of the kindergarten as a church agency. But 
such reconstruction of thought has done more; it has 
revolutionized views and methods of religious instruction, 
and therefore affected the church's main agency for such 
instruction, — the Sunday school. The leaders of the 
kindergarten movement have been deeply religious, almost 
without exception, and recognizing that existing forms 
of religious instruction were at variance with the laws of 
the child's spiritual development, have from the beginning 
aimed at the improvement of Sunday school methods. 
The evidences of their success are apparent on every hand ; 
the up-to-date Sunday school now has either a kinder- 
garten department for children of kindergarten age or a 
primary department conducted externally at least on kin- 
dergarten principles. That the kindergarten Sunday school 
or the Sunday school kindergarten is wholly successful 
can as yet hardly be claimed. To substitute spiritual 
development for the traditional religious instruction in the 
Sunday school involved as great a change in Sunday 
school ideals and methods as the substitution of the idea 
of intellectual development for that of the traditional 
instruction in the school arts in the ordinary school work. 
In attempting such changes in Sunday school work, many 
mistakes have been made. Spiritual truths cannot 
always be expressed in material form, and the shortness 
of the Sunday school program will not permit of many 



PERIOD OF EXTENSION; CHURCH WORK, ETC. 87 

features that are permissible and proper in a day kinder- 
garten. Some of the kindergarten instrumentalities — the 
songs, finger rhymes, pictures, and stories — are as valuable 
and appropriate in a Sunday school kindergarten as in 
any other, but it is a question whether the gifts and oc- 
cupations have a place there. The Sunday school teacher 
who had the children sew a black heart to represent the 
original sinful condition of that organ, and a white one to 
show the effect of Christ's atoning sacrifice, had not yet 
comprehended the true principles of kindergarten proce- 
dure in its application to Sunday school work. If kinder- 
garten training is necessary to carry on the ordinary kin- 
dergarten, it cannot be less necessary to carry on that highest 
of all kinds, the church or Sunday school kindergarten. 
As it is frequently impossible to secure a trained kinder- 
gartner, much of the so-called kindergarten Sunday school 
work is form rather than substance. That so much has 
been done is occasion for congratulation, but it is only a 
beginning. 

The value of the kindergarten for the children and of 
kindergarten training for the teacher is being increasingly 
recognized in missionary work — that among special 
peoples in our own country, such as the Indians, Mexi- 
cans, Negroes, and Chinese — and in the foreign field. 
Information concerning the extent to which kindergarten 
work has been so adopted has been difficult to obtain. 
Some denominations appear to have taken up the kinder- 
garten as a missionary agency to a greater extent than have 
others. The Roman Catholic Church has as yet done 



88 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

little apparently in this direction, probably for the reason 
that teaching both at home and in the mission fields is 
confined to certain religious orders. The members of 
these orders would hardly be likely to have taken kin- 
dergarten training before entering upon the religious 
life, and could not do so afterwards unless the church itself 
were to establish a kindergarten training school. The 
Lutherans as a denomination seem to have done little 
toward the adoption of the kindergarten as a church or 
missionary agency. The Protestant Episcopal Church 
seems to have recognized the value of the kindergarten to 
an unusual degree, probably because it emphasizes the 
building up of Christian character from infancy. 

The information on the subject of the kindergarten in 
missionary work given in the following pages is recognized 
as inadequate. It has been obtained from scattering notices 
in the kindergarten periodicals, from the missionary 
reports and magazines of some of the leading denomi- 
nations, and from replies to letters. The field is not ade- 
quately covered, but all the information that was obtain- 
able is given. Some conspicuous examples are given as 
illustrations of what is known to have been accomplished 
in some instances and of what may therefore be done in 
others. 

That the demand for kindergartners in missionary 
work is constantly greater than the supply is a most 
gratifying symptom. A kindergartner who recently 
attended the sessions of the Executive Committee of the 
Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist 



PERIOD of extension; church work, etc. 89 

Church wrote to The Kindergarten Review not long since, 
as follows: "I met missionaries who were home from 
many different countries, and as I conversed with one and 
another, they almost unanimously expressed a present 
and instant need for trained kindergartners. From 
Japan, India, Peru, Mexico, and China come similar 
tales of efforts made to start kindergartens, where furnish- 
ing and materials were at hand, and pupils and native 
assistants eager to learn, but no competent, thoroughly 
trained kindergartners able to train native girls were in 
the field. Doubtless others had appreciated as little as I 
the special adaptability of the kindergarten idea in the 
training of little ones in the foreign lands, and the immense 
advantage which a kindergartner has because her methods 
may be easily applied without waiting to overcome the 
obstacles of language and custom which cause the teachers 
of older children to stumble most grievously. Now the 
thought that occurred to me, knowing that three of my 
own class in training were already in foreign lands, was 
this : Do the girls who are studying in our training schools 
and emerging year after year filled with the spirit of the 
child lover, intensified by the knowledge gained of ways 
of child gardening, know that other countries are pleading 
for the services which our country values so lightly be- 
cause so easily obtained ? " Kindergartners are hearing 
the call, "Come over and help us," from the foreign 
field with increasing frequency. At the Milwaukee 
meeting of the International Kindergarten Union there 
was an urgent call for a kindergarten training teacher to 



90 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

go to Tokyo to assume a position of great strategic impor- 
tance, but the proper person could not be found. Miss 
Montgomery of the Oberlin Kindergarten Training School 
states that during the past five years she has had demands 
for kindergarten teachers for the foreign field which she 
has been utterly unable to supply. To meet such demands 
missionary training schools are establishing kindergarten 
departments in their institutions. Mrs. J. N. Crouse, of 
Chicago, president of the Baptist Woman's Home Mis- 
sionary Board, stated in 1892, that she had found it ad- 
visable to provide at least partial kindergarten training for 
all the students in the Missionary Training School, and 
during the year fifty-six students in that institution had 
attended the mothers' meetings at Chicago Kindergarten 
College. The Baptist Training School for Christian Work 
at Philadelphia, and the Deaconesses' Training School at 
Grand Rapids, Mich., have adopted a like policy. The 
Folts Mission Institute at Herkimer, New York, an 
institution under the management of the Woman's Foreign 
Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
has a regularly organized kindergarten training depart- 
ment of its own because of the need of trained kinder- 
gartners in missionary fields. 

As has been stated, definite information concerning 
the number of mission stations that include the kinder- 
garten has been difficult to obtain. The Woman's Board 
of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in 1906 
made the following statement in reply to inquiry. "We 
heartily approve of kindergarten methods and kindergarten 



period of extension; church work, etc. 91 

training, but as our work is almost entirely with exceptional 
peoples, we are unable to conduct many kindergartens. 
In our primary work we always give preference to teachers 
having the kindergarten training. The gifts, the weaving, 
and the games are introduced into most of the schools under 
the care of Miss Goodrich in North Carolina. We are 
hoping to establish a kindergarten in Havana, Cuba, 
next fall as a part of our mission work there. I can assure 
you that the fact that we do not have many kindergartens 
in our schools is not due to our lack of interest in these 
methods of work, but rather to the demand for other work 
being so great that we have not had the funds for distinctive 
kindergarten work." The American Missionary Associa- 
tion of the Congregational Church, whose work is among 
the negroes, Indians, Chinese, and similar peoples, makes 
a reply to nearly the same effect. The Protestant Epis- 
copal Church also has kindergartens in connection with its 
mission schools of this character. Kindergartens are 
maintained as a part of the mission work in the Hawaiian 
Islands and in Mexico also. The Presbyterian Board 
of Missions in 1896 sent a kindergartner to Bahia, Brazil, 
and the reports of her work have been most encouraging. 

The kindergarten has become a part of the mission work 
in several different portions of Asia, Africa, and Australasia. 
The Woman's Board of the Interior of the Congregational 
Church maintains kindergartens in four out of its five 
mission stations in Benguella, Portuguese West Africa. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church supports at least one in 
Umtali, Rhodesia. Others are reported at Cisambia and 



92 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Bailundu, Africa, but by what denominations they are 
maintained could not be learned. There are kindergartens 
in the Samoan Islands, and at least one at Ruk, Mi- 
cronesia. This was organized in 1897 by Miss Logan, 
whose father, the Rev. Robert Logan, gave his life to 
missionary effort in the Mortlock Islands. There is 
one kindergarten under the auspices of the Congregational 
Church at Kankesandurai, and another at Columbo, 
Ceylon. Several kindergartens are maintained in Burma 
by the Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. 
One of these is at Rangoon, one at Moulmein, and one at 
Bassein. This society also maintains a kindergarten at 
Mandelay, one at Huchow, China, and at least four in 
connection with its missions in Japan. In connection 
with two of- these at Tokyo and at Kobe, training classes 
have been organized for the instruction of native girls. 

The kindergarten has been adopted as an agency in the 
mission work in India by several denominations, but 
information concerning the extent to which it has been so 
adopted has been exceedingly difficult to obtain. A mis- 
sionary recently returned from India is authority for the 
statement that the mission schools of all denominations 
are required by law to adopt certain features of the kinder- 
garten in their elementary schools to secure certain privi- 
leges from the government. In the thirty girls' schools 
supported by the Foreign Missionary Society of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in that country, these features 
are emphasized, and in several schools trained kinder- 
gartners are employed. A kindergarten department was 



period of extension; church work, etc. 93 

organized in Thoburn College at Lucknow, the principal 
institution of the Methodist Church for the training of 
young women, ten or more years ago, in which many 
native young women have been trained. A kinder- 
garten is maintained by the Friends Mission at Nowgong, 
Bundelkhand, and several are maintained by the Con- 
gregational Church. One of these is at Bombay, and 
another at Sholapur. At the last-named place a kinder- 
garten training school has been organized under the direc- 
tion of Miss Mary B. Harding, in which many native young 
women have been prepared for kindergarten work in other 
mission fields. Miss Harding has rendered an important 
service to the kindergarten cause in India by translating 
into one of the native languages the books collectively 
termed "The Republic of Childhood," by Kate Douglas 
Wiggin and Nora A. Smith. Calcutta, Cawnpore, Ali- 
garh, and Madras are also known to be kindergarten 
centers, but the denominations under whose auspices the 
work was inaugurated and maintained could not be learned. 
Pundita Ramabai considered kindergarten training a 
necessary preparation for the work that she hoped to do for 
her own countrywomen. In the school which she es- 
tablished upon her return to her native country, in 1888, 
the kindergarten forms an important part. 

China, too, is beginning to feel the beneficent influence 
of the kindergarten. Although little definite information 
could be obtained concerning the extent to which it has 
been adopted there, it is known to have become a part of 
the work of three great denominations, — the Baptist, the 
Methodist Episcopal, and the Congregational. 



94 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

The kindergarten has become a conspicuous part of 
mission work in Turkey and in Japan, and an account of 
the work in these two countries cannot fail to be of interest. 
In 1896 there were twenty-eight kindergartens that had 
been established in Turkey by the Woman's Board of the 
Interior of the Congregational Church, and several that 
had been established through other agencies. The whole 
movement in Turkey grew out of the establishment of a 
kindergarten in the American School for Girls in Smyrna, 
in 1885. Miss Nellie S. Bartlett, who undertook the work 
there and who has seen it grow to its present proportions, 
thus spoke of it some years ago in The Kindergarten 
Magazine : 

"The kindergarten was opened with seven children in 
the sunny room of the Girls' School. This proved to be 
the most attractive place in the building, judging from the 
eagerness with which the older pupils flocked to the 
windows and doors during the recess time. Erelong the 
room was crowded with thirty children, and still later as 
the number continued to increase, a part of them were 
accommodated in the chapel. It was a joyful day when 
the department was transferred to the beautiful building 
of the Woman's Board of Missions. The large hall is 
used for the general exercises and the Sunday school, and 
there are four airy class rooms. The training school is 
well accommodated here. In the pleasant garden each 
child has a small flower-bed to dig, plant, and water as 
he likes. 

"The success of the Smyrna kindergarten created a 



PERIOD of extension; church work, etc. 95 

demand for a like blessing in other places," continues Miss 
Bartlett, "but this was out of the question without thor- 
oughly prepared kindergartners. Hence young ladies 
from different parts of Turkey were sent to Smyrna for 
the needed training, which has been, and still is, a most 
important part of the work." In view of the importance 
of the work several additional American kindergartners 
were sent to Turkey. Miss Saunders, who was sent to 
Smyrna to assist Miss Bartlett, "was loaned to Constanti- 
nople after a year of faithful service, where in the midst 
of great difficulty on account of the condition of the country, 
she conducted a kindergarten training class and superin- 
tended several kindergartens by sending them plans of 
work." In Cesarea excellent work of the same kind was 
done by Miss Burrage, in Mardin by Miss Graf, in Van by 
Miss Huntington, and in Trebizond by Miss Halsey. 
Kindergarten training is carried on in the Girls' College 
at Marash by a native kindergartner, one of Miss Bartlett's 
graduates. Such training is also given in the Girls' Board- 
ing School at Marsovan. 

Miss Bartlett stated further that in the twelve years that 
had passed since the work was undertaken about fifty 
young women and two young men had taken a course in 
kindergarten training. The number of kindergartens 
had increased until at the time that the article was written, 
in 1896, there were twenty-eight, as has been stated, in 
Asiatic Turkey alone. A number of these soon became 
self-supporting. One, that at Yozgat, was supported by 
the local Y. P. S. C. E. Some of them received more or 



96 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

less help from America. All but two were carried on in 
the Turkish or Armenian language. English is used in 
the one connected with the American College for Girls 
at Constantinople, and the Greek children in the school at 
Smyrna are taught in their own language. Miss Bartlett 
concludes her article by saying: "If kindergartens are 
desirable in America, they are tenfold more so in this 
country. The kindergarten is now believed to be a neces- 
sity in every mission station and there is a greater demand 
for well-trained kindergartners than can be supplied.' ' 

Missionary effort in Japan has called the kindergarten 
to its aid with most gratifying results. "The time was," 
says a recent writer, "when missionaries worked mostly 
for grown-up people, but the children are getting their 
share, or a little of it these days, and kindergartens, Sunday 
schools, Young People's Societies of Christian Endeavor, 
and orphanages are helping to make life happier and better 
for the children of Japan." Kindergartens were established 
as a part of the Japanese public school system in 1876, 
and in 1904 it was estimated that there were one hundred 
eighty-two public and ninety-eight private kindergartens 
in the country. The very fact of the ready acceptance of 
the kindergarten by the Japanese people suggested their 
value as a missionary agency. In 1889 Miss Annie L. 
Howe, of Chicago, was sent to Japan by the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions of the 
Congregational Church, to open a kindergarten and a 
kindergarten training department in Kobe College, one 
of the most important centers for the training of girls. 



period of extension; church work, etc. 97 

The kindergarten, called the Glory Kindergarten, was 
immediately successful and has more than realized the 
hopes of its founders. It now has two admirable build- 
ings of its own, one for the kindergarten proper, and one a 
home for the students in training. The latter was the 
gift of Chicago friends, among whom was that stanch 
friend of the kindergarten, Mrs. E. W. Blatchford. A 
writer in Life and Light thus speaks of this kindergarten : 
"The most fascinating place in Kobe, and I except not 
even the curio shops, the waterfall, or the walk over the 
hills, is the dainty little kindergarten which Miss Howe 
has mothered and which she is still mothering. Sight- 
seers come, and usually before they left England or Amer- 
ica some one had told them to look up the kindergarten. 
But if, as sometimes happens, they do not know about it, 
some one here is sure to say : ' Have you seen the kinder- 
garten? Then you must go.' And go they do, only to 
come away saying, as I myself heard at least two people 
say recently, 'It is the most fascinating place in Japan.' 
I have seen the kindergartens in Boston and other cities 
and enthused over them, but all in all I still commend the 
Glory Kindergarten." After commenting on the pictur- 
esque costumes and the exquisite manners of the Japanese 
children, the writer continues: "The rooms are large, 
airy, and sunny, and filled with every kindergarten neces- 
sity and many a luxury. Out in the yard each child has 
his own flower garden, which he cares for from the begin- 
ning, and his flowers adorn the school and go out to visit 
sick fellow-pupils. In winter each child has a plant and 



98 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

this he cares for in true kindergarten style, with song and 
marching ; and he learns its habits as he watches its growth, 
its budding, its blooming, and seeding from day to day. 
The children also have birds belonging to the school to care 
for, and in caring for them learn neatness and tenderness. 
Each child, too, at one time or another, has his paste- 
board and gauze box containing silkworms, and these he 
feeds and watches through all their changes. In the cabi- 
net in one of the rooms is a skein of silk spun from the chil- 
dren's own cocoons. It is not worth while going into further 
details. All that is done at home is done here, and they 
are not one whit behind in modern improvements.' ' 

Miss Howe herself thus speaks of the work: "When 
the children who go to the public school stand up to receive 
the certificate which they must take to their future teachers, 
they will feel, and we shall too, that a step upward has been 
taken. They will take with them the memory of the 
many prayers, the songs about God, the Christmas songs, 
the Bible stories they have come to know so well, the bless- 
ing asked at luncheon time, the ideas they have gained of 
the connection between flowers, fruit, grain, trees, — yes, 
and even stones, and the God who made all these things 
for us. They will keep on going to Sunday school, many 
of them, and I am sure that all this they have learned in 
a Christian kindergarten will influence them as long as they 
live." In 1904 she said: "Kindergartens which have 
won the confidence of the Japanese are very popular, and 
it is not unusual to have applications filed two years in 
advance, to secure a child's admission when he becomes 



PERIOD OF EXTENSION ; CHURCH WORK, ETC. 99 

three years of age. A list of nearly two hundred applica- 
tions has been known to be in waiting in October for 
twenty vacancies which would occur in April, the time 
when kindergarten children of six, according to Japanese 
law, pass up to the elementary school." 

In the first six years of its existence this kindergarten 
had taught hundreds of children, the average attendance 
being about seventy, and had graduated twenty-three 
young women from the training course. The Congre- 
gational Church in Japan had in 1903 twelve mission 
stations, and four of these have adopted the kindergarten 
as a regular part of their work. All of these have build- 
ings of their own and are well equipped. Dr. Gordon, 
one of the missionaries, wrote as follows some time ago 
concerning one of the Kyoto kindergartens : " It has been 
my privilege to be associated with one (kindergarten) 
established here in connection with our 'Airinsha,' or 
House of Neighborly Love, our headquarters for philan- 
thropic and evangelical work in the city. The printed 
account of the origin of the Airinsha stated that the kinder- 
garten had added much to the reputation of the house, 
and promised to be one of its most permanent attractions. 
Since then the kindergarten has marched right along on 
the road to success, so that we have now one head teacher 
and two assistants, and the limit of pupils that we have 
set is entirely filled. This kind of work appeals especially 
to the Japanese, and now that sentiment is not so favorable 
to Christianity as it was a few years ago, I know of no 
other method equally helpful in reaching Japanese homes. 

LOFC. 



IOO THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

The children are a delight to see. Nearly all of them 
attend the Sunday school and help to make it the success 
it is. The older brothers and sisters of the pupils, and 
in some cases their nurses, come with them to the Sunday 
school. The success of this kindergarten, as well as Miss 
Howe's good work in Kobe, has called attention to its 
importance." Here as elsewhere, in Japan and in other 
countries, the opportunities of the work are limited only 
by the lack of means and of teachers. 

One of the greatest services that Miss Howe is rendering 
the cause of kindergarten advancement in Japan is the 
translation of Froebelian literature into Japanese. It 
is difficult to realize the difficulty of training kindergartners 
in a country where customs are strange, where the language 
is unfamiliar, and where there are no helps of any kind, — 
text-books, song books, or story books. " Miss Howe has a 
genuine Japanese mother-play book of which she is very 
proud," said a writer in speaking of her work in 1896. " She 
says, 'I have proved over and over again that Froebel's 
principles are as true in Japan as they are in Germany 
and America, and since the best kindergarten work is 
based upon that book, that book must be Japanned with- 
out delay. It is now finished.' In translating and pub- 
lishing the book, a young man, Sadato San, was her inval- 
uable assistant ; and after nearly five years of effort it is 
safely through the press. The Japanese artist conformed 
the mother-play pictures to native canons and put in 
many pretty and suggestive touches of the life of Japan, 
yet he preserved the spirit of the subject wonderfully 



PERIOD of extension; church work, etc. ioi 

well. A song book adapting many kindergarten songs 
from Eleanor Smith's and other song books in use in 
American kindergartens has also been published in 
Japanese." Another such book has since been pubished, 
and in 1904 Froebel's "Education of Man," and several 
other books, had been translated and were awaiting pub- 
lication. The preparation of these books will be of value 
to every kindergartner in the Japanese Empire. 

The adoption of the kindergarten as a missionary 
agency in Japan will have a most important influence 
upon the character of mission work in the Orient, now 
that that nation has assumed the leadership in the Far 
East. In Japan, as in other countries where the kinder- 
garten has been adopted, its value is twofold. It influences 
the children at an age when impressions are most lasting, 
and it proves to be one of the most effective agencies for 
reaching the homes of the people. For these reasons 
the social settlement considers the kindergarten one of 
its strongest agencies. The most successful church work 
at home and missionary work abroad is that which is 
adopting settlement methods. The Protestant Church 
is beginning to take to heart the lesson contained in a 
conversation reported by Julian Ralph. " Do the materi- 
alistic tendencies of the times weaken the Catholic Church 
in America?" I once asked of a Paulist Father whom 
I met on a railway train. "Oh, no," said he; "we 
Catholics catch our people young and they never get away 
from us. We hold that if we can have the care and 
guidance of a child under seven years of age, it will always 



102 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

come back to the church in after years, in every important 
crisis of grief or joy in life. That is why our great church 
is unaffected by the godlessness that alarms others. We 
make Catholics of little children, and they never cease 
to grow as the twig is bent." 



CHAPTER VII 

The Period of Extension; The Kindergarten in 
Temperance, Settlement, and Welfare Work 

The adoption of the kindergarten by religious organi- 
zations of different kinds brought it to the attention of 
many people who might not otherwise have made its 
acquaintance. It was brought to the notice of a still 
larger class through its adoption by the temperance workers 
of the country. The Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union must therefore be given an important place among 
the agencies that have aided in advancing the kindergarten 
cause. This organization has been conspicuous for its 
efforts to correct the evils resulting from the liquor traffic, 
and to reform lives and homes blasted by the drink habit, 
yet it has realized fully that the ultimate foundation for 
temperance must be laid in education, and the value of 
its educational work — less conspicuous than its corrective 
efforts — has been beyond estimate. The organization 
felt that intemperate husbands and fathers must be re- 
claimed and poverty-stricken, discouraged mothers helped 
to a higher plane, but that if the homes of the future were 
to be safe, the mothers of the present, whether the victims 
of intemperance or free from its blighting touch, must be 
taught such methods of child training as will make their 

103 



104 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

children safe against the temptations of the lower senses. 
It felt also that mothers must be awakened to their respon- 
sibility for the kind of education provided in the school, 
and to the need of cooperation with those who are working 
for its improvement. 

With these ideas in mind, the W. C. T. U. marked out 
two special lines of work that had an important bearing 
upon kindergarten progress. To acquaint mothers with 
the fundamental principles of child rearing as these are 
embodied in the theory and practice of the kindergarten 
was one; to stimulate them to effort in the direction of 
kindergarten advancement, such as the incorporation of 
the kindergarten into the school or the establishment of 
mission kindergartens in localities where the drink habit 
had worked the greatest havoc, was another. These 
lines of work could not be successfully carried out, how- 
ever, without carefully organized effort, and the coopera- 
tion and leadership of kindergarten experts. The need 
of a kindergarten department in W. C. T. U. work was 
therefore felt, and such a department was subsequently 
added to those already organized. Since the work with 
mothers was felt to be of the greatest importance, a care- 
fully planned course of study in Froebelian literature was 
outlined, and local unions were urged to organize classes 
for systematic work in this direction. The movement 
was undertaken with much enthusiasm all over the land, 
and its influence and value cannot be overestimated. As 
a means of creating sentiment in favor of the kindergarten 
nothing better could have been devised. Existing kinder- 



period of extension; temperance work, etc. 105 

garten literature was made the basis of the work done in 
these study classes, and the W. C. T. U. itself published 
several valuable pamphlets on the subject. Mrs. E. 
G. Greene, who occupied the position of Superintendent 
of the Kindergarten Department of the National 
W. C. T. U. during the eighties, issued a pamphlet of 
directions for local workers, called " Golden Keys," which 
is a complete manual on the subject. It gave the reasons 
why the W. C. T. U. had taken up the kindergarten as a 
department of its work, the aims of the department, the 
list of books to be read, and suggestions for conducting 
the local study classes. 

No less valuable for the kindergarten cause was the 
work done by the W. C. T. U. in establishing kinder- 
gartens. Owing to the fact that statistics concerning 
the number so established or still maintained have been 
difficult to obtain, some of the most important ones may 
have been omitted in the list given below. The Central 
W. C. T. U. of Chicago established such a kindergarten 
in Bethel Mission in 1883, and maintained it for years. 
The South Side Union also maintained one for years. 
Other cities in which W. C. T. U. kindergartens are known 
to have been established are : Evanston, 111., Philadelphia, 
Pa., Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, and Big Rapids, Mich., 
Albany, N.Y., Springfield, Vt., Portland, Me., Balitmore, 
Md., Toledo and Youngstown, O., Minneapolis, Minn., Lex- 
ington, Ky., and Los Angeles, Lakeport, Berkeley, San 
Francisco, National City, and San Jose, Cal. In the last- 
named city the kindergarten was inaugurated by the W. C. 



106 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

T. U. and later taken up by the public school authorities. 
The amount of work done by local, state, and national 
workers in securing the incorporation of the kindergarten 
into the school system cannot be ascertained or estimated. 
Suggestions concerning the methods of effecting this are 
frequent in W. C. T. U. literature. While Miss Mary 
E. McDowell was superintendent of the kindergarten 
department of the W. C. T. U., a department was edited 
in The Kindergarten News under the heading " W. C. T. U. 
Kindergartens." In this the following suggestions were 
made. " By offering to support a kindergarten in a public 
school building for a year you will be giving an ignorant 
public and an indifferent school board an object lesson 
which may result in the adoption of the system as a part 
of the school work." A later suggestion is to the effect 
that "Legislation needs influencing also." "Laws incor- 
porating the kindergarten as a part of the state public 
system should be passed by every state." Such legislation 
was effected through the efforts of the W. C. T. U. in at 
least two states, — Vermont and Michigan, — in the 
former in 1887 and in the latter in 1891. The discussion 
of kindergarten work in local, state, and national 
W. C. T. U. conventions, the addresses delivered by 
the superintendents of the kindergarten department, state 
and national, the published reports of the work accom- 
plished by the kindergarten department, added to the 
influence of the kindergartens established and the mothers' 
clubs conducted, combine to form an influence that to a 
greater or less degree penetrated to every city, town, and 



period of extension; temperance work, etc. 107 

hamlet in the country. The kindergartners of the country 
owe to the W. C. T. U. a great debt of gratitude for the 
work that organization has effected in behalf of the kinder- 
garten cause. 

Among the newer agencies to acquaint the public with 
the kindergarten and its work is the social settlement. 
The growing desire to render needed social service was 
one factor in the organization of kindergarten associa- 
tions and like forms of philanthropic effort. The desire 
to minister to those in social, intellectual, and spiritual 
need gave birth likewise to the settlement, — the agency 
that more than any other expresses the spirit of the present 
age. So akin are the social settlement and the kinder- 
garten in spirit that several head residents of settlements 
were originally kindergartners, and several well-known 
settlements began as mission kindergartens and became 
settlements by the natural expansion of their work. This 
is true of the Neighborhood House in Chicago, of the East 
Side Settlement in Detroit, of the Neighborhood Settle- 
ment in Milwaukee, of Bissell House in Grand Rapids, 
of Kingsley House in New Orleans, and of several others 
that might be named. Other settlements are still in the 
process of evolution from the kindergarten stage. In 
Boston the day nurseries have grown into settlements. 
The kindergarten places emphasis upon the natural 
instincts of childhood, — upon its love of companionship, 
its desire for activity, its love for the beautiful, and its 
yearning for knowledge. The educational process as 
interpreted by the kindergarten consists in the direction 



108 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

and utilization of these instincts for the furthering of the 
child's intellectual and moral development. The settle- 
ment recognizes the validity of these instincts in children 
of a larger growth, and seeks to develop and direct them 
in like fashion. The settlement has therefore been termed 
a kindergarten for adults. It is the recognition of these 
principles that gives form and purpose to settlement work. 
Is the neighborhood in which it operates lacking in oppor- 
tunities for social enjoyment? The settlement must 
provide means and occasions to meet that need. Is there 
intellectual hunger which the locality has no means of 
satisfying? Study classes must be formed and other 
avenues to knowledge opened. Is appreciation of art 
needed, and are standards in its expression lacking? 
Art appreciation must be awakened and cultivated by 
exhibits or class instruction, and by concerts and musical 
societies. Like the kindergartner, the settlement worker 
must find the point of contact in those with whom she is 
working and through spontaneous interest and active 
effort lead to an appreciation of fundamental truths and 
governing principles. The settlement has, as a rule, no 
dogma to inculcate, like the church ; no doctrine to which 
it wishes to convert the public, like the kindergarten 
association, and no special purpose to accomplish, like 
the W. C. T. U. As the kindergarten furnishes an all- 
round development because it meets the child's varied 
needs, so the settlement aims to develop the community 
to which it ministers by providing for its many-sided needs. 
In this lies both its strength and its limitation. The 



period of extension; temperance work, etc. 109 

settlement did not adopt the various forms of manual 
training for its clubs and classes from a desire to further 
the manual training movement, although it is aiding the 
progress of manual training as a factor in education. It 
did not teach art or music for the sake of advancing the 
cause of art education, although it is doing so most effec- 
tively. It did not include the kindergarten among its 
agencies from a desire to promulgate the doctrines of 
Froebel, although it is doing much for their acceptance. 
It recognized the kinship between the spirit and method 
of the kindergarten and those of its own, and adopted that 
institution as a perfect instrument for the accomplish- 
ment of its own ends. It has advanced the cause of the 
kindergarten, but in its own way. The settlement move- 
ment is not centrally organized. It has no machinery 
like the W. C. T. U. by means of which it can instill a 
given doctrine into the minds of the many. It has no 
work mapped out by a central authority which each 
settlement is supposed to take as a working guide. Each 
settlement is an independent unit, working in fraternal 
relation to other settlements, but acknowledging no central 
authority. And yet the settlement has rendered a great 
service to the kindergarten cause and to the cause of the 
new education. It has taken a strong hold upon the public 
imagination. Its residents, mostly young college men and 
women, are those who will aid in shaping the educational 
thought and practice of the future. The young men and 
women now in college, however, are still largely the product 
of the old educational regime, and the college ideal is 



IIO THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

still mainly the intellectual one. Since child study is 
not an integral part of the average college course, few 
college students have an acquaintance with the nature 
and needs of early childhood, or a knowledge of the new 
educational movements. Few of those who undertake 
residence in a settlement have come into working contact 
with a kindergarten, or with children's clubs, playgrounds, 
and vacation schools in which its principles are applied. 
That the aim of the settlement and that of the kindergarten 
are identical, that successful settlement work is that which 
is based upon the methods employed in the kindergarten 
— these are arguments in favor of the kindergarten that 
are convincing and unanswerable. The settlement may 
not have intentionally preached the doctrines of Froebel, 
but it has practiced them in every phase of its work. In 
the playground, the children's club, the vacation school, 
nay, in the very settlement itself, one may read the phi- 
losophy of the kindergarten writ large. The settlement 
has baptized many a college man and woman into a new 
spirit ; it has given them a new insight into the meaning 
of education and of Christianity. It has lent an interest 
to work with children that is liable to be sadly lacking in 
college graduates. If it had done nothing more for the 
kindergarten than to introduce it thus to college people, it 
would deserve the gratitude of every friend of the kinder- 
garten movement. But it has done more, — it is inter- 
preting Froebel anew to the kindergartners themselves. 
At the Chicago meeting of the International Kindergarten 
Union, Miss Jane Addams told the kindergartners there 



PERIOD OF extension; temperance WORK, ETC. Ill 

assembled that if Froebel were to come back to earth he 
would be distinctly disappointed to find the kindergartners 
so largely occupied with children only, since his is a 
theory of life, and not of child education alone. The 
follower of Froebel who is not making the kindergarten 
a center for neighborhood work has not, in Miss Addams' 
judgment, grasped the whole significance of Froebel's 
doctrine. That she needs to look away from the details 
of kindergarten technique and study the social significance 
of Froebel's philosophy is the message of the settlement 
to the kindergartner of to-day. By its adoption of the 
kindergarten the settlement has interpreted it to the public 
in a larger and higher sense. It is the kindergartner's 
duty to see that the public is not disappointed. 

It is of interest to know that the first two settlements 
opened in the United States, the University Settlement in 
New York and Hull House in Chicago, have had kinder- 
gartens from the beginning, and that nearly if not quite 
half of the two hundred settlements listed in the "Bibli- 
ography of Settlements" for 1905 include the kindergarten 
among their agencies. Here, too, incomplete returns 
make a complete statement impossible. There can be 
no question concerning the place that the kindergarten 
occupies in the estimation of Hull House. Its equipment 
for the work with children is exceptionally complete, and 
its Children's Building, erected in 1896, for the special 
use of the neighborhood children may well serve as a 
model for other settlements. It is four stories high, and 
contains completely equipped club rooms, a nursery, a 



112 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

general playroom, and a kindergarten room that is a model 
of beauty and convenience. The superintendent of the 
nursery is a trained kindergartner who also superintends 
the games and plays, the playgrounds, the children's 
clubs, and all matters pertaining to the child life of the 
neighborhood. The kindergarten has been at different 
times in the hands of the most choice and talented kinder- 
gartners of Chicago. One of the oldest kindergarten 
training schools in the West, that conducted for more than 
thirty years by Mrs. Alice H. Putnam, gathered its students 
under the Hull House roof for several years, in the con- 
viction that the contact with the social conditions of a 
settlement would add to the practical value of professional 
kindergarten training. Other settlements too have served 
the kindergarten cause in this manner. The classes of 
the Chicago Kindergarten Institute met for several years 
at the settlement conducted under the auspices of the 
University of Chicago, and Chicago Commons is the per- 
manent home of the Pestalozzi-Froebel Training School. 
In giving the kindergarten students an insight into child 
life in large cities and in acquainting them with kinder- 
garten principles in this larger interpretation, these settle- 
ments have rendered an additional service to the kinder- 
garten cause. 

Closely allied to settlement work in many respects is 
the welfare work now being undertaken by many large 
business firms with the cooperation and for the benefit 
of their employees. Employers are beginning to recognize 
— apart from any moral concern that they may feel for 






period of extension; temperance work, etc. 113 

those in their employ — that clean and wholesome con- 
ditions of labor will attract a better class of workers and 
produce more and better work than will the opposite; 
in consequence, a general improvement in factory condi- 
tions is taking place. Attractive lunch and rest rooms 
are being provided, factory grounds are being beautified, 
educational facilities are being offered, and wholesome 
and helpful recreation is being furnished. The benefit 
does not as a rule extend beyond the employees themselves 
excepting indirectly, but in several conspicuous instances 
direct provision has been made for the welfare of the 
families of the employees, and in some cases such benefit 
has been extended to the community. Herbert H. Vree- 
land, Chairman of the Welfare Department of the National 
Civic Federation, says: "Realizing that men could not do 
their best work unless their homes were what they should 
be, classes in domestic science have been organized to 
teach the proper preparation and serving of food, how 
to buy groceries, the desirability of cleanliness in the 
house, and how to make comfortable and economical 
clothing. It goes without saying that a good wholesome 
meal will make a more contented and efficient workman, 
and that the disappearance of slovenliness from the house- 
hold will make the fireside an attractive and winning 
competitor of the saloon when the day's work is over." 
The National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio, 
maintains "a model cottage such as working people can 
provide for themselves, which serves as an object lesson 
of how to make such a home pretty and attractive." It 



114 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

is presided over by a deaconess and operates as a sort of 
social settlement. This "House of Usefulness," as it is 
deservedly called, has indirectly taught many a lesson in 
home making and keeping, and has been of the greatest 
service in many ways. 

To increase the happiness and efficiency of the worker, 
provision must also be made for the welfare of his children. 
Playgrounds, gardens, clubs, and classes of different 
kinds have therefore been provided in several instances, 
to occupy the hours that the older children spend out of 
school, and kindergartens have been established and 
maintained for the benefit of the younger children. The 
National Cash Register Company already mentioned has 
maintained for several years a kindergarten in which a 
hundred or more children are enrolled. The author of 
"Factory People and Their Employees" describes the 
work of this company at some length. He says, quoting 
the reasons given by President Patterson, of the company 
named, for the establishment of the kindergarten: "An 
employer of a large number of men owes it to himself to 
obtain the very best men possible, and to his employees 
to give them and their families every opportunity for their 
best development. If the city in which the factory is 
placed does not itself offer complete forms of education, 
then it is within his province to set an example showing 
what can be done by the best schools. His purpose in 
carrying out these ideas is not to do these things per- 
manently but to show his own city their value." This 
Mr. Patterson has done so fully, in the judgment of the 



period of extension; temperance work, etc. 115 

author quoted, that the city of Dayton now has a complete 
system of kindergartens, all the result of the example 
of the kindergarten connected with his factory. The 
author quoted adds: "Mr. Patterson believes that he 
is in business not for a few years but for many, and that 
the difficulties of the past in obtaining workmen with 
bright ideas may be overcome by training the children of 
the present. Since 92 per cent of them will earn their 
living by manual labor, it is certainly proper to give them 
that early training which will make them the best work- 
men when they are grown. In short he expects his factory 
to need skilled labor and more of it for many years to 
come, and thinks that it is wisdom to assist in preparing 
for the future. He finds, too, that even so-called unskilled 
labor gives better service when the early training has been 
along right lines." "He also recognizes," continues the 
author in question, "that in his efforts to win the good- will 
of his operatives nothing will be more successful than 
opportunities given to the children of these men. Men 
of all classes appreciate what is done for their sons and 
daughters more than any other favors shown. Thought- 
fulness, therefore, on the part of the employers for the fam- 
ilies of the operatives must receive large returns in more 
kindly feelings on the part of the men themselves. Expe- 
rience, not only in this factory but in others, has proved 
this to be a true statement of the purpose of this work." 
The kindergarten conducted by this company is held 
in the model cottage mentioned. In it the children's 
clubs and classes also meet, as well as the cooking and 



Il6 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

sewing classes, the kindergarten association, the women's 
guilds, and other associations. So valuable does Presi- 
dent Patterson consider kindergarten training and the 
kind of education of which it is the type, that a rule has 
been made that after 191 5 no one shall be employed in 
the factory who has not had kindergarten training. Such 
endorsement of the kindergarten by practical business 
men is worth much to the kindergarten cause, and it 
cannot fail to call the kindergarten to the attention of 
others, either as a feature for adoption in the welfare 
work of business firms, or for adoption into the school 
system of such cities as have not yet given it consideration. 
That the action of the National Cash Register Company 
has done much to further educational progress in the city 
of Dayton cannot be questioned. It has not only set the 
seal of its approval upon the kindergarten, but upon man- 
ual training, gardening, and playgrounds, which are its 
legitimate outgrowths. 

The business firm that must be awarded the banner for 
the extent to which it has adopted the kindergarten as a 
feature of its welfare work is the Colorado Fuel and Iron 
Company, of Pueblo, Col. This company owns forty 
properties consisting of coal, manganese, and iron mines, 
and coke camps, in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New 
Mexico. It employs about fifteen thousand men, 
speaking not less than twenty-seven different languages. 
It carries on a completely organized system of welfare 
work, the outgrowth of a kindergarten started in one of 
the mining camps in 1892 by Mrs. J. A. Kebler, the wife 



period of extension; temperance work, etc. 117 

of the general manager of the company, who afterward 
became the president. This was before the legislature 
had enacted a law making the maintenance of public 
kindergartens possible. The success of this first kinder- 
garten was such that others were soon opened, with which 
certain features of welfare work were connected. This 
phase of work has grown until there are thirteen kinder- 
gartens in as many localities, each the center of work of 
the social settlement type. The company has organized 
a department called the sociological department, which 
carries on a complete system of work for the social better- 
ment of the sixty thousand or more people that it reaches. 
The company received a gold medal at the St. Louis 
Exposition for the exhibit of the kindergartens in its 
mining camps, and several other medals for other features 
of its work. 

The work of this company is unique in many particulars, 
and deserves the highest commendation from many stand- 
points. It recognized the importance of education for 
its employees and their wives as well as for their children, 
and it has therefore taken an active interest in the schools 
of the forty different communities in which it operates. 
These communities are mostly small towns of from five 
hundred to four thousand inhabitants, in which, through 
the cooperation of the company, the school has become 
the social and intellectual center to an extent that would 
delight the advocates of the larger use of school buildings. 
The schoolhouses are built with this purpose in mind. 
They are two stories in height, and in addition to the class 



Il8 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

rooms, contain a kindergarten room and a hall, where the 
lectures, concerts, and social gatherings of the community 
are held. "The credit for building and inspiring these 
modern schoolhouses must be given to the Colorado 
Fuel and Iron Company, in whose camps they are found 
and at whose request they were built," says Dr. R. W. 
Corwin, the superintendent of the sociological depart- 
ment. "Ina number of instances the plans of the build- 
ings were furnished by the company, and when the school 
fund was inadequate the company advanced thousands 
of dollars for the erection and equipment of the structure. 
The buildings in the southern fields are likely to be models 
of all future schools in the coal camps." 

This company has made a new application of the idea 
of making the school the center of its community life, 
in setting apart special houses for the use of the teachers. 
These serve a double purpose. Dr. Corwin says again: 
"One of the problems which has long confronted the de- 
partment is that of providing for its teachers and workers 
permanent boarding places and rooms. It is desired 
furthermore to have some place in each camp which may 
serve as a model for camp housekeepers, and which may 
be a sociological headquarters and a center for social 
work. In view of these needs the company has set aside, 
or built in a number of camps, houses for distinctly 
sociological purposes. As many rooms as are necessary 
for the accommodation of teachers and workers are 
furnished, leaving the remainder of the house to a family 
for occupancy, so that the teachers may not live entirely 



period of extension; temperance work, etc. 119 

alone. The furnishings of the teachers' rooms are thor- 
oughly practical and sanitary, and are intended to serve 
as a standard of taste from which housekeepers may 
realize how much may be accomplished with compara- 
tively small expenditure." 

It is in these homes that many of the women's and 
children's clubs and classes are held. " At first the people 
seemed reluctant about coming to the house to receive 
lessons in cooking and sewing," says Dr. Corwin. "This 
feeling, however, soon wore away and they now begin to 
feel that the house is for their benefit as well as for the 
teachers. They are much interested in the furnishings, 
and take special care to notice the arrangement and 
quality of the furniture; the condition of the cupboards, 
dresser-drawers, etc. Such details as the folding of the 
towels, table linen, and bed linen are also particularly 
noted. The sanitary couch has caused much comment. 
Many have expressed a wish to have their houses papered 
just like the teacher's house." 

But it is the work of the kindergartens themselves that 
is of the greatest interest. As stated, these are thirteen 
in number, and accommodate nearly if not quite five 
hundred children. Some of them are located in buildings 
erected especially for this purpose, but for the most part 
they have comfortable rooms in the public school. The 
enrollment varies from twenty-five to sixty-three. With 
one exception they have a morning session only, the kinder- 
gartner's time in the afternoon being given to club and 
class work with the older children. Of the work in the 



120 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

kindergartens themselves the superintendent, Mrs. Mar- 
garet Grabill, says: "Our constituency makes necessary 
a few noteworthy differences in methods from those of 
the ordinary kindergartens. Many of the children come 
to us with no knowledge of English. This makes the 
first work with them difficult, but it is astonishing how 
soon they learn to speak and sing. Because of the de- 
ficiency in language a greater degree of occupation and 
constructive work is given, since the children can imitate 
the teacher's work long before they can understand or 
follow language. An extensive use is made of pictures and 
objects. The kindergartner is obliged to employ more 
than the usual amount of rhythm and physical culture 
work, as the little bodies are stiff and untrained. Many 
more than the usual number of games are played, and 
here again the progress is remarkable. Much time has 
been devoted to nature study, illustrated by construction 
work, in many cases exceptionally good considering 
the little hands that made it. Fairy stories, patriotism, 
courage, kindness, and gentleness have been illustrated 
in this way, and also by free-hand cutting, drawing, and 
water coloring. 

"In 1903 an exhibit of kindergarten work was made at 
the Colorado State Fair held in Pueblo, and the diploma 
awarded for the best work was given to our display. 
A much more complete display was sent to St. Louis, where 
it attracted considerable attention because of its unique 
character and excellent workmanship. Whole mining 
camps, farmyards, houses and barns, gardens, windmills, 



PERIOD OF EXTENSION ; TEMPERANCE WORK, ETC. 121 

kindergarten rooms, four and five roomed houses, each 
room furnished appropriately, and all made by the little 
children, were among the features of the display." 

The benefit that the children derive from the work of 
the kindergarten is not the only one aimed at in such work 
as this. "From two standpoints the kindergarten is a 
factor of more than average importance," says one of the 
reports. "Not only does it begin the all-round develop- 
ment of the child at the most impressionable period, but 
it is in this field the master key to the whole social better- 
ment situation. The kindergarten has had far more 
success than any other institution in dealing with our 
foreign people. By careful and tactful visitation and 
invitation the kindergartner dispels suspicion and secures 
the patronage of all nationalities. It enables her to get 
into the homes and win the confidence of the mothers. 
Then mothers' clubs are formed. In one camp there is 
a club of fifty members. In another a child study club 
is successfully carried on. This is composed entirely 
of English-speaking mothers. In still other camps 
mothers' meetings are carried on, foreign mothers attend- 
ing, and music and industrial work supplying the place of 
papers and discussions. In nearly every instance the 
foreign mothers have taken an interest in this social better- 
ment work as far as they have been able to understand, 
and especially have the calls of the kindergartners and 
the little entertainments of the kindergarten children been 
instrumental in winning the way to their hearts." With 
such a variety of nationalities it is not strange that a 



122 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

knowledge of Spanish and Italian should be required on 
the part of the kindergartners. 

One is tempted to dwell at too great a length upon the 
admirable work done by this company. "The spread 
of the kindergarten movement during the past twenty or 
thirty years had been a significant part in the educational 
life of America. But kindergartens in a mining com- 
munity supported entirely by a mining corporation are, 
as far as we know, unknown outside the camps of the 
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company," says Dr. Corwin, 
with justifiable pride. The company thoroughly under- 
stands the principles upon which the kindergarten is 
based, and appreciates the fact that by its means from 
one to two years are added to the children's school life. 
Since at least 25 per cent of the camp children do not 
complete the eighth grade, this is of the greatest value. 
The work done by this company is an object lesson to the 
whole country of what may be done in an industrial 
community in the direction of educational and social 
betterment, by wisely directed humanitarian effort. 

Within recent years the kindergarten has also been 
taken up by several of the cotton mill owners of the 
Southern states. Detailed information concerning these 
has been difficult to obtain. Among the mills in which 
kindergartens are known to have been established are 
the Elsas, and the Exposition Cotton Mills of Atlanta, 
the Millingham Mills of Columbus, Ga., the Avondale 
Mills in Alabama, the Richland, Olympia, and Granby 
Mills of Columbia, S.C., and the Pelzer Mills of Pelzer, 



PERIOD OF EXTENSION ; TEMPERANCE WORK, ETC. 1 23 

in the same state. The Eagle and Phoenix Company 
has opened two kindergartens within the past three years, 
one in Girard and one in Phoenix City, each of which 
will accommodate seventy-five or more children. The 
building at Girard was recently described as elegant and 
attractive, an ornament to the part of the city in which 
it is situated. The interior is of Georgia pine and the 
furniture is of the same material and finish. It has the 
needed cloakrooms, a bathroom, an anteroom, and a 
raised platform in the main room for the accommodation 
of visitors. The provision for the comfort and happiness 
of the children is not confined to the building alone. 
An outdoor gymnasium, equipped with all necessary 
apparatus, and flower and vegetable gardens, give the 
children opportunity for play and exercise out of doors. 
The grounds are ornamental as well as ample, and 
serve as an ideal for the beautification of lawns and 
dooryards. 

Judging from an item that appeared in one of the kinder- 
garten periodicals shortly before these kindergartens were 
opened, the idea originated at least in part with the opera- 
tives themselves. It stated that "the Central Federation 
of Labor, composed of representatives of all the labor 
unions of Columbus and of the Alabama suburbs of 
Phoenix and Girard, is planning with the aid of Mr. 
George J. Baldwin, a prominent Savannah capitalist 
who has extensive interests in Columbus, to start a kinder- 
garten for the children of the working population. This 
is, so far as known, the first attempt made anywhere by 



124 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

trades' unions to promote an educational idea." In 
these kindergartens, as in others of the kind, the company 
pays all the expense, the salaries of the kindergartners 
included. Other business firms that are known to sup- 
port kindergartens as a part of their welfare work are the 
Solvay Process Company, of Syracuse, N.Y., the Illinois 
Steel Company of Joliet, 111., the Plymouth Cordage 
Company of Plymouth, Mass., and the Bardeen Paper 
Company of Otsego, Mich. With the present interest 
in welfare work, the example of these firms will doubtless 
be followed by others in the near future. 

The adoption of the kindergarten by these different 
agencies, religious, philanthropic, and educational, has 
been of the greatest value to the kindergarten and to 
education in general. It has interested thousands of 
women in education that would not otherwise have made 
a study of educational problems. It has given them nobler 
conceptions of motherhood and childhood, and acquainted 
them with the fundamental principles of child training. 
The connection with an organization interested in kinder- 
garten advancement has broadened the range of many 
women's interests. It acquainted them with the problems 
of the city, social, economic, educational, and religious. 
It showed them the need for philanthropic effort, and led 
them to an appreciation of the character that such effort 
should assume. It awakened many to the appeal that 
beauty makes to a little child and, as a result, to the value 
of art in popular education. It did much to bring about 
the acceptance of the new educational ideals and un- 



period of extension; temperance work, etc. 125 

doubtedly influenced the character of education in women's 
colleges. 

As to the kindergarten itself, one can only guess what 
its present status would have been had not the influence 
of these different agencies — the church, the settlement, 
and others of a like character — been exerted in its behalf. 
The footsteps of its progress would have been slow indeed 
to all appearances, had it depended upon the school 
alone. It would have lacked, also, the many-sided inter- 
pretation that has made it a significant influence in Ameri- 
can life. The church has called attention to the religious 
aspect of its doctrine; philanthropic organizations have 
called public attention to its social significance; and the 
school has pointed out the educational value of its under- 
lying principles. But each is a part of the whole, and in 
emphasizing the different aspects of the Froebelian doc- 
trine, each of these agencies has aided in interpreting 
the whole. It is the Froebelian doctrine in its entirety 
that is making the kindergarten the influence in American 
life that it is to-day. 

But these facts, which are gratefully acknowledged by 
every intelligent kindergartner, should not blind the stu- 
dent of the movement to certain disadvantages that have 
resulted from the adoption of the kindergarten as a phil- 
anthropic agency. One of these disadvantages arises 
from the close connection that has been established in 
the public mind between the kindergarten and the creche 
or day nursery. The two have frequently been estab- 
lished together, both serving a philanthropic purpose. 



126 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

In consequence the kindergarten is regarded by thousands 
as being little if anything more than an advanced form 
of the day nursery, whose purpose is served if the children 
are kept clean, happy, and off the streets. Many mission 
kindergartens unfortunately justify this impression. The 
large number of children frequently enrolled, — much 
too large for effective work, — the economy exercised in 
the use of material, the low salaries paid, — these and 
other conditions that too frequently prevail in philanthropic 
work, have done much to obscure the real educational 
value of the kindergarten. In speaking of the kinder- 
garten as a charity agency, and having in mind the con- 
ditions mentioned, Professor Earl Barnes says, "A silver 
spoon may be a very good instrument to scrape an iron 
kettle with, but it is very hard on the spoon." 

The deterioration of the kindergarten itself under the 
conditions too frequent in the charity kindergarten and 
the obscuring of its educational significance to the public 
are not the only disadvantages arising from its adoption 
as a charity agency. The mission kindergartner often 
undertook her work as a labor of love and asked for no 
remuneration. If salaries were paid they were wholly 
out of proportion to the services rendered. The kinder- 
gartners' services therefore did not reach a true valuation 
in the educational labor market. When the kindergarten 
became a part of the public school system this occasioned 
difficulties that in many places have not even yet been 
satisfactorily adjusted. Salary conditions are improving 
in the kindergarten world, but many kindergartners are 



period of extension; temperance work, etc. 127 

still suffering from the conditions that first determined 
the salaries paid. 

The adoption of the kindergarten as a charity had 
another result from which the kindergarten of the present 
is suffering. That the kindergarten training could not 
be other than superficial when the purpose of the organi- 
zation that provided it was fundamentally philanthropic 
has been elsewhere stated. The standard of entrance 
could not be high under such conditions, or the number 
of students would be too small to carry out the philan- 
thropy in question. The training teacher or teachers 
employed could not be of the best, as the conditions of the 
treasury made it impossible. The time for theoretical 
training must be limited, since the students were needed 
for practical work in the kindergartens. In consequence 
many poorly trained kindergartners were sent out. To 
bring kindergarten training out of the condition which 
gave it its present form, and to place it on a level with 
training given to other teachers, is one of the pressing 
problems in the kindergarten to-day. 

The disadvantages which the kindergarten has suf- 
fered from its adoption by some of the agencies named 
are, however, more than offset by the advantages it derived 
from such adoption. Had it not been for the kindergarten 
association, the church, and the settlement, the circle of 
those to whom the kindergarten is known would have 
been a limited one; as a result of the efforts of these 
agencies, it is known to every person of intelligence 
throughout the country. In this and other respects too 



128 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

many to be enumerated the services which philanthropy 
and religion have rendered the kindergarten cause can- 
not be overestimated and kindergartners everywhere are 
grateful that their beloved institution has been deemed 
worthy of such support. 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Period of Extension; The Kindergarten and 
Educational Organizations and Exhibitions 

The growing appreciation of the kindergarten during 
the first few years of the new decade recorded in the last 
chapters was mainly outside of the teaching ranks. It 
was natural and fitting that the doctrines of Froebel 
should appeal first to mothers, and proof of their funda- 
mental value that such was the case. But a movement 
of such vigor and power could not fail to make an impres- 
sion upon educators, and even if they had turned a deaf 
ear to kindergarten appeals, the insistence of the kinder- 
garten advocates within the teaching ranks, cooperating 
with the body of enthusiasts in the larger world, would 
eventually have compelled them to listen. The increasing 
Froebelian literature, the growing approval of kinder- 
garten theory, the proved adaptability of the kinder- 
garten to public school conditions, and the increasing 
emphasis upon the aesthetic element in education, — 
all these were influences tending toward its ultimate 
adoption by the school. 

But the educational leaders themselves began to take 
steps to bring the kindergarten before the teachers of the 
country. The educational press and educational organi- 
k 129 



130 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

zations — state and national — have played a most impor- 
tant part in advancing the kindergarten cause. At 
its first meeting in 1872 the National Educational Associa- 
tion had presented the doctrines of Froebel to the con- 
sideration of the American educational public, and before 
1880 the cause of the kindergarten had been given several 
hearings before that body. But something more was 
needed than an occasional presentation of the kindergarten 
on the general program, and at the meeting at Madison, 
in 1884, steps were taken by which a kindergarten depart- 
ment was created. This was an important step for both 
kindergarten and general education. The program of 
the National Educational Association had not been of 
such a character as to attract kindergartners to its meet- 
ings, and such meetings as the kindergartners had held 
themselves had been attended by few if any of the teachers 
and superintendents of the country. The organization 
of the kindergarten department of the National Educa- 
tional Association was" therefore an important step in 
taking the kindergarten out of its isolation and giving 
it a place in the general educational system. If the kinder- 
gartners hoped for the ultimate adoption of the kinder- 
garten by the school, they needed to acquaint themselves 
further with school problems and conditions and if the 
school was to incorporate the kindergarten into the general 
system of education, the teachers needed an added famil- 
iarity with its aims and methods. What better means 
could be devised to acquaint each with the purposes of 
the other? At the first meeting of the department at 



period of extension; organizations, etc. 131 

Saratoga, the president, W. N. Hailman, thus stated the 
main purpose of those who had taken the initiative in 
bringing about its organization. "To secure a thorough 
testing and sifting of kindergarten principles and methods, 
and to devise ways and means for the full and generous 
application of what may be found valuable and available 
in the educational work of the school. The efficiency 
of the kindergarten in the unfolding and filling of child 
life in its earliest stages has been brought to the petitioners 
(for the creation of the department) so unmistakably, 
that they yearn to secure for the school the powerful and 
beneficent influences involved. The chief problems which 
they hope the kindergarten department to solve are : 

First: What are the principles and methods by which 
the kindergarten arouses even in little children, so deep, 
broad, and generous an interest in life and the things of 
life ? How does it at so early a period in child life secure 
that thoughtful mastery of self and surroundings which 
is the root of all character and efficiency in life? How 
does it secure that rounded and complete living that 
neglects no faculty, strains no faculty, does violence to no 
faculty, but leads them all into a healthy growing activity 
that makes life consciously worth living at every step? 

Second : To what extent do these principles and methods 
apply to the period of school life ? 

In the twenty-two years that have passed since the or- 
ganization of the department, the National Educational 
Association has met in the following cities, in the order 
named: Saratoga, Topeka, Chicago, San Francisco, 



132 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Nashville, St. Paul, Toronto, Saratoga, Milwaukee, 
Washington, Asbury Park, Denver, Buffalo, Los Angeles, 
Charleston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Boston, St. Louis, 
New York, and Los Angeles. The benefit of these 
meetings to the kindergarten cause is simply incalculable. 
The importance of the occasion and the character of the 
audience has stimulated every kindergartner who has 
appeared on the program to her very best effort. The cause 
of the kindergarten has been strengthened in every com- 
munity in which the meetings have been held, because of the 
presence of the leaders in the movement. The thousands of 
programs sent out and reports published have familiarized 
the public with every phase of kindergarten effort. Oppor- 
tunity has been afforded the kindergarten leaders to 
become personally acquainted with the men and women 
who are shaping the direction of general education. To 
the Association it brought the stimulus of fresh and vital 
problems; the reenforcement resulting from the influence 
of a new and enthusiastic body of workers ; and a general 
increase in educational intelligence and interest. The 
reports of the early meetings indicate that the car of kinder- 
garten progress did not always move as smoothly and 
rapidly as its friends could have wished. "The new 
department was forced to work its way in the midst of 
great discouragements, outside as well as inside the edu- 
cational profession," said one writer. "It was brought, 
like all similar reform movements, face to face with 
prejudice, skepticism, ignorance, and ridicule. It held its 
own, however, from year to year, presented an annual 



period of extension; organizations, etc. 133 

program to its members, gaming here a little more respect, 
there a trifle more encouragement and vantage ground. 
One by one progressive educators paused in passing by 
the kindergarten door to hear what was being said inside." 
But the interest continued to grow, and at the Nashville 
meeting the attendance is said to have exceeded that at 
the general meeting. In connection with the Toronto 
meeting the department was spoken of as the live depart- 
ment of the Association. The kindergarten did not fail 
to utilize the increasing interest, and the cause prospered. 

During recent years the kindergarten cause has been 
materially strengthened in the South by the addition of a 
kindergarten department to the Southern Educational 
Association, the second largest educational organization 
in the United States. The first meeting of the newly 
organized department was held in connection with the 
meeting at New Orleans in 1898. Other meetings of that 
body have been held in Memphis, Richmond, Columbia, 
S.C., and in other of the larger Southern cities. The 
program of the kindergarten department has been most 
excellent in every case, and the influence of the meetings 
upon the growth of kindergarten sentiment in the South 
has been very marked. They have brought into promi- 
nence the kindergarten workers of the South, who have 
been too far removed from the kindergarten centers in 
other sections of the country to be adequately known 
and recognized. 

The Saratoga meeting of the National Educational Asso- 
ciation in 1892 is a memorable one in the annals of kinder- 



134 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

garten history, since it was at that time and place that 
the International Kindergarten Union was organized, — 
now the third largest educational organization in the 
country. This was brought about as a result of a two- 
fold need. The first was that of a greater consolidation of 
the growing kindergarten interests than even the National 
Educational Association could offer; and the second was 
the making of a convincing presentation of the kinder- 
garten cause at the approaching Columbian Exposition. 
The official report of the organization of the International 
Kindergarten Union reads as follows : "At the time of the 
thirty-second annual meeting of the National Educational 
Association held at Saratoga Springs, in July, 1892, a 
meeting of kindergarten training teachers, presidents of 
kindergarten associations, and others actively interested 
in the kindergarten movement, was held in the Baptist 
Church on the morning of July 15th to consider a propo- 
sition made by Miss Sarah A. Stewart, of Philadelphia, 
to make some formal organization of the kindergarten in- 
terests throughout the country and also to prepare the 
way for a fitting representation of this department of 
work at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. ^ was 
unanimously resolved at this meeting that such an organi- 
zation was desirable and that a committee of seven be 
elected by ballot to take the matter under further consider- 
ation ; to prepare plans for the organization, and to report 
at the afternoon session of the kindergarten department 
of the National Educational Association. The committee 
consisted of the following members: Mrs. Ada Marean 



period or extension; organizations, etc. 135 

Hughes, Toronto; Miss Angeline Brooks, New York 
City; Miss Sarah A. Stewart, Philadelphia; Miss Mary 
C. McCulloch, St. Louis; Miss Annie Laws, Cincinnati. 
The remaining two members who were elected, Mrs. 
Sarah B. Cooper, San Francisco, and Miss Lucy Wheelock, 
Boston, were unfortunately absent. 

At the afternoon session of the kindergarten department, 
the report of the committee was read by the chairman, 
Miss Stewart, recommending the organization of a Na- 
tional Kindergarten Union which would in no way antag- 
onize the kindergarten department of the N. E. A. but 
would act in sympathy and harmony with it, only extend- 
ing the field of work more widely than the department of 
the N. E. A. had as yet been able to do. The report was 
accepted, and it was decided to form a temporary organ- 
ization to further consider the matter. Miss Stewart 
was made chairman and Miss Laws secretary of the tem- 
porary organization. 

After some discussion it was decided that an association 
be formed under the name of the "International Kinder- 
garten Union." The aims of the Union were to be as 
follows: — 

1. To gather and disseminate knowledge of the kinder- 
garten movement throughout the world. 

2. To bring into active cooperation all kindergarten 
interests. 

3. To promote the establishment of kindergartens. 

4. To elevate the standard of professional training of 
kindergartners. 



136 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

The special aim for 1893 wn ^ be to give as complete 
an exhibition as possible of kindergarten progress in the 
world, at the Columbian Exposition. 

The officers elected were, — President, Mrs. Sarah B. 
Cooper, San Francisco; First Vice President, Miss Sarah 

A. Stewart, Philadelphia; Second Vice President, Miss 
Laliah Pingree, Boston; Corresponding Secretary, Miss 
Caroline T. Haven, New York; Recording Secretary, 
Miss Mary McCulloch, St. Louis; Treasurer, Miss Eva 

B. Whitmore, Chicago. 

In commenting upon the step taken, Miss Hofer, of The 
Kindergarten Magazine, said: "Great credit is due Miss 
Sarah Stewart of Philadelphia, who so ably proposed and 
outlined such action, and who, as temporary chairman, car- 
ried the proceedings of organization in the most creditably 
parliamentary manner. Mr. W. E. Sheldon, of Boston, 
was also largely instrumental in securing so strong a plan 
of organization, having offered many valuable and practical 
suggestions. It is due to his foresight and knowledge 
of the minor details of the Association at large, that the 
Union placed itself in the proper relation to the N. E. A., 
as well as to the World's Auxiliary Congress, to both of 
which it must needs be subject in its efforts to push the 
educational exhibit of 1893." -^ ne wor k done through 
the combined efforts of these organizations will be dis- 
cussed under another heading. 

The I. K. U. thus owes its immediate origin to the 
stimulus of a great occasion, but the recognized need of 
an organization of the kindergartners of the country to 



period of extension; organizations, etc. 137 

further the general interests of the kindergarten move- 
ment would doubtless have led to the formation of such 
an organization at no distant date. There had been two 
earlier organizations with aims almost identical. The 
first of these was the American Froebel Union, which 
was organized in Boston in 1877 by Miss Peabody. It 
had held several meetings in Boston and one in New York. 
In Detroit in 1879 a Western Kindergarten Association 
was organized, the meetings of which were held in Chicago 
and Detroit alternately. The organization of the kinder- 
garten department of the N. E. A. in 1884 had, however, 
seemed to make the continuance of these organizations un- 
necessary, and for eight years the N. E. A. meetings had 
furnished the means of furthering the progress of the kin- 
dergarten movement, which had been the avowed purpose 
of both. The kindergarten cause had made great progress 
during these years, and the newly formed I. K. U. started 
on its career with a promise of success and influence that 
would have been impossible to the earlier organizations. 

During the year following the Columbian Exposition 
no meeting of the I. K. U. was held. In 1895 it was an 
affiliated body with the National Council of Women on 
the one hand, and with the N. E. A. on the other, and a 
meeting was held with each of these organizations during 
the year. The first was held in Washington in the early 
spring. The National Council of Women devoted one 
day to this department, which took its place as one of the 
great national bodies which compose that Federation. 
The leading kindergartners of the country addressed large 



138 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

and appreciative audiences upon subjects of kindergarten 
interest. At the meeting of the N. E. A. at Denver, 
"the regular kindergarten department of the N. E. A. 
proved so very full and interesting under the able manage- 
ment of Miss Amalie Hofer," says the secretary, Miss 
Stewart, "that the I. K. U. seemed in danger of losing 
its separate existence. However, a grand rally was made 
at the close of the convention and very stalwart work 
was done in the line of business." 

The secretary says, further: "The crowded condition 
of the programs of the N. E. A., owing to the large and 
growing number of its departments, made it seem necessary 
to appoint a separate time and place of meeting for the 
I. K. U. The Denver meeting forms the point of depar- 
ture. It takes its place in the history of the organization 
only as a business meeting, where the effort was made 
simply to make time, and to appoint strong officers to 
organize and maintain a separate existence. Whether 
the separation from the two large bodies with which it 
had been affiliated was wise or unwise, as a settled policy, 
remains to be seen." 

The first occasion at which the I. K. U. met as a sep- 
arate organization was the meeting held at Teachers 
College, New York, February 14, 1896. This was the 
first meeting at which the general work for which it was 
organized was taken up, and its present working machinery 
evolved. It was a meeting of a handful of leaders only, 
but it was fruitful in suggestions for future work. The 
meeting at St. Louis the following year was the first of 



139 

the larger meetings which have since come to have a 
value for the kindergartner in the ranks as well as for the 
leaders who are shaping the course of kindergarten prog- 
ress. This meeting was made memorable by the presence 
of the Baroness von Buelow-Wendhausen, the niece of 
Froebel's foremost disciple and co-worker. 

The succeeding meetings of the I. K. U. have been held 
as follows: In Philadelphia in 1898; in Cincinnati in 
1899; in Brooklyn in 1900; in Chicago in 1901 ; in Boston 
in 1902; in Pittsburg in 1903; in Rochester in 1904; 
in Toronto in 1905; in Milwaukee in 1906; and in New 
York City in 1907. The growing numbers and the in- 
creasing size of the meetings have given it an added impor- 
tance in recent years, and it is now ranked as the third 
largest educational organization in the country. 

That the I. K. U. has done much to give unity, dignity, 
and momentum to the kindergarten movement all will 
admit. The adaptation of the kindergarten to American 
life and education was no simple problem. Experiments 
were being made in different sections of the country, by 
independent workers, under conditions totally different. 
An all-round development of the kindergarten idea could 
be secured only by a comparison of these experiments. 
A premature and one-sided crystallization of kindergarten 
interpretation and procedure could only be avoided by 
the same agency. The I. K. U. furnished the oppor- 
tunity for comparisons ; it acquainted each with the work 
that others were doing. The kindergarten of the future 
is being slowly evolved from the comparison of these ex- 



140 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

periments, and not the kindergarten only, but a complete 
system of primary education grounded in the principles 
of Froebel. In furthering this evolution the I. K. U. 
has rendered a lasting service to the kindergarten and to 
general education. But it has done more. It has unified, 
strengthened, and dignified kindergarten training. It has 
brought increasing inspiration to the kindergartner in 
the ranks by the increasing value of its meetings. Much 
remains to be done along the lines of investigation and 
propagation, and though the kindergarten department 
of the N. E. A. and the I. K. U. have rendered magnifi- 
cent service in furthering the kindergarten movement, 
neither can as yet rest upon its oars in the satisfaction of 
labor accomplished. 

Among the many agencies for bringing the kindergarten 
to the attention of the public, the summer schools that have 
sprung up everywhere of recent years must be given an 
important place. These have been of many kinds and 
have met varying needs. Some have offered instruction 
in some one line ; the curriculum of others rivals in com- 
plexity that of the modern university. At the head of 
the list stands Chautauqua. To some Chautauqua is 
little more than a beautiful summer resort; to others 
it is a place for intellectual stimulus and recreation; to 
still others it is the opportunity for quiet, purposeful study. 
When, in 1879, Chautauqua added its " Teachers' Retreat" 
to its many attractions, it set into operation a most effec- 
tive agency for influencing the educational thought of 
the country. For here teachers could see and hear the 



period or extension; organizations, etc. 141 

leaders of the new educational gospel, here they could 
acquaint themselves with the new methods that were 
growing in favor in every progressive community; here 
many saw a kindergarten in operation for the first time, 
and realized the difference between its spirit and method 
and that in vogue in the school. A kindergarten depart- 
ment was added to the educational attractions of Chau- 
tauqua in 1 88 1, and as the local Chautauquas, now three 
hundred or more in number, were organized, they too 
included the kindergarten in their list of agencies for 
popular instruction. 

The Chautauqua kindergartens serve a double purpose. 
Even if they had not been established for the purpose of 
instruction in the newest form of educational procedure, 
they would have been organized as a practical necessity. 
Chautauqua aims to provide enjoyment and profit for 
all who enter its gates, and shall the children who fre- 
quently must accompany their parents be denied their 
share in the generous provision? Kellogg Hall is as 
popular with Chautauqua children as is the Hall of Phi- 
losophy with adults, and the kindergarten circle is always 
filled. The children are not the only ones to be found in 
the kindergarten rooms. Every available space is occupied 
with the mothers of the children, members of the obser- 
vation or training classes, or with casual visitors. Here 
is a mother from a distant state eager to have her child 
enjoy the advantages of the wonderful institution of which 
she has heard and read so much. There sits a minister 
from a Western city who had intended to stay through the 



142 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

opening exercises only, but who has forgotten the flight 
of time in his interest. In a corner sits a young woman 
recording every detail of the morning's work. She has 
come all the way from South America. "The Chau- 
tauqua plan is perhaps farther reaching in its effects 
than any other, since the entire country contributes its 
spectators," says a recent writer, and even the slightest 
acquaintance with the scope of work at any of the larger 
Chautauquas will demonstrate the fact that as a missionary 
agency for the kindergarten cause, it is unequaled. In 
addition to the kindergarten proper, there are classes for 
at least three groups of people. There is always a class 
for mothers, some of whom come for the special purpose 
of getting the help they need in the work with their children. 
There is a course for such kindergartners already trained, 
who wish a broader outlook and the opportunity which 
the occasion affords of interchange of views with fellow- 
workers. And last but not least is the observation class, 
which includes teachers and not infrequently ministers 
who wish to acquaint themselves with kindergarten pro- 
cedure and the principles that underlie it. Chautauqua 
brings many interested and interesting visitors from all 
parts of the world. Among the many present during one 
summer the following were reported as belonging to one 
or the other of the three classes: a young woman from 
South America who at one time had charge of a kinder- 
garten in the gardens of the Emperor of Brazil ; a kinder- 
gartner from one of the leading cities of Canada who 
wished suggestions for enlarging the scope of her work; 



period of extension; organizations, etc. 143 

the principal of a colored school in the South; a kinder- 
gartner from India ; a home missionary from New Mexico ; 
a teacher in a government Indian School in Indian Terri- 
tory; a missionary from China; a young woman from 
South Africa ; and the principal of a state normal school. 
A list as varied and interesting could doubtless be compiled 
each season. It is because of the presence of such people 
that a course for kindergartners in normal schools and 
primary and kindergarten supervisors has been organized 
of late for the consideration of the larger kindergarten 
problems. 

The advantages which Chautauqua offers to mothers, 
kindergartners, and teachers are not confined to the work 
of the kindergarten department only. The provision 
made for grade teachers is as ample as that made for 
kindergartners and mothers, and many courses are offered 
which are of equal interest to all. Courses in educational 
psychology and child study, in children's music and in 
art in the kindergarten and primary grades, given by 
specialists, attract both kindergartners and teachers and 
broaden the views of both. Primary teachers acquire 
a knowledge of the kindergarten almost unconsciously, 
since modern methods in primary work are based upon 
kindergarten principles. The work at Chautauqua 
has, perhaps, more than any other agency, introduced 
the kindergarten to ministers and Sunday school workers 
of the country. Froebel's views concerning the child's 
spiritual nature are being increasingly accepted, and in 
consequence more wholesome methods of religious in- 



144 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

struction have come to prevail. Through the Chautauqua 
lectures and conferences on the problems of the child's 
spiritual development and the application of kindergarten 
principles to Sunday school work, kindergarten depart- 
ments are becoming the rule in the Sunday schools of 
the country, and religion is taking its true place as a 
means toward the child's highest development. In all 
these ways Chautauqua must be considered as one of the 
great influences in furthering the kindergarten movement. 

The kindergarten cause in the South has been mate- 
rially advanced during the past six years by the establish- 
ment of the Summer School of the South, at Knoxville, 
Tenn. In addition to the kindergarten which is in session 
for the entire six weeks it has provided courses in child 
study and kindergarten literature for kindergartners and 
primary teachers, and holds kindergarten and other con- 
ferences for the discussion of problems relating to kinder- 
garten work. In 1905 a Southern Kindergarten Associa- 
tion was formed for the purpose of discussing the problems 
peculiar to kindergarten work in the South and making 
plans for its more general introduction in that section. 

The many summer schools of methods, held in different 
sections of the country during recent years, have been 
among the indirect means of advancing the kindergarten 
cause, and frequently the direct means as well. The first 
of these was Martha's Vineyard Summer Institute, the 
Mecca of progressive teachers for many years. Dexter 
says of this, "It must be placed second only to the great 
assemblies at Chautauqua in the breadth of its influence 



period of extension; organizations, etc. 145 

and the number of students who have attended. During 
its history nearly every educator of note in the country 
has appeared upon its platform." Kindergarten speakers 
always occupied a place on its programs. In 1885 the 
Saratoga National Summer School of Methods was 
organized. This was later combined with a similar 
school held at Round Lake, N.Y., and later still with the 
one at Glens Falls, N.Y., where it continued its work 
until 1897. The Cook County Summer Normal, at 
Chicago, was of the same character. Like Chautauqua, 
these schools drew the progressive and aspiring teachers 
by the courses of improved methods in teaching the com- 
mon school branches, and by the opportunity afforded 
for acquaintance and conference with other progressive 
teachers. The leading kindergartners of the country 
gave lectures and courses of work, and the principles of 
the kindergarten were recognized and applied in the 
methods of teaching grade work. The summer school 
held at La Porte, Ind., by Professor and Mrs. Hailman, 
aimed directly at this. In this, as well as in several other 
summer schools, direct and special courses of instruction 
in kindergarten work as such were given. This was 
true of the summer schools held under the auspices of 
the Chicago Free Kindergarten Association, of the Chicago 
Kindergarten College, of the Grand Rapids Kindergarten 
Association, and several others. Through attendance at 
these schools thousands of teachers and school principals 
gained new educational ideas and an insight into the new 
educational doctrines. Though the work done could not 



146 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

but be superficial in many instances, the summer schools 
must be considered as an influence of great value in 
furthering the new education. 

The service that expositions and exhibits of kinder- 
garten work could render the cause of kindergarten prog- 
ress was recognized by the experiences of the Philadel- 
phia Exposition. Since that date the friends of the 
movement have not been slow to avail themselves of the 
opportunities that have presented themselves. One of 
the first opportunities utilized was the Madison meeting 
of the N. E. A., already mentioned as marking a mile- 
stone in kindergarten progress. This was the first time 
in the history of the N. E. A. that an organized exhibit 
of school work had been made, and the kindergarten 
exhibit was "one of the most extensive and complete 
which has ever been made of kindergarten work," says 
the N. E. A. record, "a surprise to every one." The 
work of the kindergarten exhibit came from eighteen 
different cities, and comprised a wide range of institu- 
tions. The system that was seen to underlie kinder- 
garten work impressed every one, and many additions 
were made to the roll of its advocates. Exhibits of school 
work have been among the most interesting and instruc- 
tive features of the succeeding meetings of the N. E. A., 
and the kindergarten has been more or less adequately 
represented at each one. The I. K. U. has made inter- 
mittent and spasmodic efforts to have an exhibit of work 
in connection with its meetings, but in the judgment of 
many it has not risen to its opportunities in this respect. 



period of extension; organizations, etc. 147 

The matter of an exhibit has too frequently been left to 
the ambition of individual workers, cities, or training 
schools, and there has been no concerted effort to secure 
a general representation of kindergarten work, or to 
bring the work of different schools of kindergarten inter- 
pretation into comparison. This is one of the directions 
in which the I. K. U. can profitably direct its energy in 
the near future. 

The great expositions that have been held in the dif- 
ferent sections of the country during the past quarter 
century have furnished many opportunities for acquaint- 
ing the general public with the merits of the kinder- 
garten, and in the case of the Chicago Exposition, at least, 
these were most admirably utilized. The New Orleans 
Exposition in 1885 furnished the first of these occasions. 
A kindergarten was conducted by Mrs. Anna J. Ogden 
and Miss Mary Crosby, both of Washington, during the 
entire period that the exposition was in session, and 
attracted great and favorable attention. A kindergarten 
exhibit had also been prepared, but the organization of 
educational exhibits on a large scale had not received the 
attention at that time that it has received since, and the 
exhibit was not so organized and placed as to attract 
the attention that it deserved. The kindergarten and the 
exhibit combined did much to awaken kindergarten in- 
terest, however, in the South particularly. As a result 
of the effort made, and of the place given the kindergarten 
on the program of the International Congress of Educa- 
tion held in connection with the exposition, one of the 



148 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

friends of the kindergarten cause said that "the kinder- 
garten as such had been clearly raised from its former 
questionable isolation into the genial and friendly com- 
panionship of established educational forces. " 

What the New Orleans Exposition accomplished in 
behalf of the kindergarten for one section of the United 
States, the Columbian Exposition at Chicago did on a 
large scale for the whole country. The I. K. U. was 
organized, as has been stated, for the purpose of cooper- 
ating with the Board of Lady Managers in devising a plan 
that should accomplish the purpose desired. No ade- 
quate presentation of the kindergarten could be made that 
did not portray it in its relation to the whole life of the 
child from the modern-day standpoint. A most com- 
prehensive plan was therefore formulated, which is 
indicated in part from the official circular, which read 
as follows: "Although the world has known many large 
expositions at various -times in its history, in none of these 
have the interests of children received the full represen- 
tation that they deserved. Such great progress having 
been made during the present century in the methods 
of educating, amusing, and caring for the physical 
well-being of the coming men and women, it seems desir- 
able that an illustration of the best methods should be so 
grouped that they may be easily assimilated by, and 
made useful to, the vast number of people who will visit 
the World's Fair. In many cases it will be impossible 
for the mothers to visit the exposition without taking their 
children, and in so doing they will wish the little ones as 



period of extension; organizations, etc. 149 

well as themselves to take the fullest advantages of the 
educational facilities offered. With these ends in view 
the Children's Building has been designed, which will 
give to mothers the freedom of the exposition while the 
children themselves are enjoying the best of care and 
attention." 

The beautiful Children's Home, " built by the women 
of the world for the world's little ones," was ninety by one 
hundred and fifty feet, and perfectly adapted to the pur- 
poses it was intended to serve. The ground floor con- 
tained the reception rooms, an assembly room, a com- 
pletely equipped gymnasium, and several nursery rooms; 
and the second the kindergarten room, a manual training 
room, a court for a playground, and several other rooms. 
" Thinking of the myriad miles of bare schoolroom walls 
that belt the country, and are daily gazed at by thousands 
of impressionable school children, the committee sought 
to give illustrations of appropriate art for children; con- 
sequently, on ceiling, window, frieze, and panel were 
pictures of child life and pastime, or representations of 
the world-old stories that all children love to hear." The 
decorating of the interior of the building was put into the 
hands of kindergartners, the making typically beautiful 
the Children's Palace, and displaying the possibilities 
of wall decorations, for school and home, being considered 
a part of the occasion. 

In the building was presented the best thought on every 
phase of child life. A series of manikins was shown, to 
represent the manner of clothing infants in the different 



150 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

countries of the world, and demonstrations were made of 
the most healthful and natural methods of feeding, dress- 
ing, and caring for children, according to modern scientific 
theories. The nurseries were models of their kind, and 
gayly decorated booths showed the toys and games of all 
nations. Stereopticon talks upon foreign countries were 
given to the older children by trained kindergartners, who 
then took them in groups to see the exhibits from the 
countries in question. The younger children were taken 
charge of in the beautiful kindergarten rooms, and the 
mothers given an opportunity to see a real kindergarten 
in operation. The Kindergarten Literature Company 
had its headquarters here, and distributed much valuable 
information concerning the kindergarten. Another op- 
portunity to see a kindergarten in operation was given in 
the Illinois State Building, where a kindergarten was 
conducted for the entire six months by the joint effort of 
the two kindergarten associations of Chicago, the Froebel 
Association and the Free Kindergarten Association. 
"Two equally great purposes are to be served in the 
public presentation of the kindergarten at the World's 
Fair," Miss Amalie Hofer had said in The Kindergarten 
Magazine. "First, the attention of the world at large 
is to be called to the fact that the new education is opera- 
tive, and the public is to be shown what it is and does. 
Second, the facts illustrating what it has already accom- 
plished are to be arrayed before those already intelligent 
on the subject." The Children's Building was one of 
the means of accomplishing both purposes. Visiting 



period of extension; organizations, etc. 151 

kindergartners and teachers were invited to make the 
building their headquarters while at the exposition, and 
the opportunity for observation which it afforded, com- 
bined with the lectures there given on different phases 
of child culture, gave to many a teacher an entirely new 
view of child life and of the educational process. 

The Children's Building furnished one of the means of 
acquainting the public with the new gospel of childhood. 
The exhibits and the congresses furnished others. At 
the time the educational exhibits seemed quite wonderful, 
although the better organization of such exhibits at the 
St. Louis Exposition reveals their crudity and lack of 
organization. The kindergarten exhibits were generously 
sprinkled in among the general school exhibits, some of 
them isolated, and others in relation to the school work 
of which the kindergartens formed a part. The casual 
visitors could not fail to be impressed by the frequency 
with which the kindergarten announced its presence. 
That it had come to stay was evident; that it had made 
its impression upon grade work was equally evident. 
The kindergartner learned many lessons by seeing her 
own work in its general educational perspective. The 
school principal and grade teacher could not but marvel 
at the general progress of the kindergarten movement. 
The student of educational progress who had seen the 
kindergarten exhibits of earlier years, could not fail to 
note that great influences were at work in the kindergarten 
world. The larger free work that appeared in some of 
the exhibits seemed ugly and inartistic to many in con- 



152 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

trast with the small exact work to which they were accus- 
tomed. Others saw in this work a prophecy for the 
future. The evidences of the new movement have been 
accumulating in recent years, and discussions concerning 
it wax warm in kindergarten circles. But of this, more 
later. 

To many kindergartners the educational congresses 
furnished the crowning inspiration of the exposition. The 
I. K. U. held a department meeting in the World's Con- 
gress of Representative Women, to set forth its own work 
and to discuss topics connected with it. There were 
two kindergarten congresses under separate management, 
and varying largely in scope and character. The first 
of these was the special kindergarten congress, which 
held its sessions the week beginning July 17th. This 
was presided over by William N. Hailman. The second 
was the meeting of the kindergarten section of the Inter- 
national Congress of Education, held July 25th to 28th, 
under the auspices of the N. E. A. This was in charge 
of Mrs. Ada M. Hughes, president of the kindergarten 
department of the N. E. A. Both congresses brought 
an earnest body of workers from far and near, who spoke 
with sincerity and conviction. The Special Kindergarten 
Congress opened with a paper on Froebel and his work, 
by William N. Hailman. Among the topics and speakers 
during the week were the following: " Every mother 
a kindergartner," Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, San Francisco. 
"The place of music in the kindergarten," W. L. Tomlins, 
choral director of the World's Fair. "The professional 



period of extension; organizations, etc. 153 

training of kindergartners," Mrs. Eudora L. Hailman, 
La Porte, Ind. "The relation of play to work," Miss 
Angeline Brooks, New York. " Froebel's religious views," 
a discussion. "The influences of home and school upon 
child character," Miss Constance Mackenzie, Philadelphia. 
"Elementary science teaching," Professor Edward G. 
Howe. "Physical culture," Baron Nils Posse and 
Margaret Morley. A full morning was given to the dis- 
cussion of art in the kindergarten, Miss Mary Dana Hicks 
leading. For one day the kindergartners and the manual 
training and art teachers met in joint session. The sub- 
ject "Symbolism in early education" was discussed by 
Mrs. Marion Foster Washburne, and other appropriate 
topics were presented by Mrs. Louise Parsons Hopkins 
of Boston and Professor James L. Hughes of Toronto. 
The closing session of the week was held on Sunday 
afternoon, when Miss Lucy Wheelock of Boston, Miss 
Anna Bryan of Chicago, and Miss Annie Howe of Japan 
discussed the relation of the kindergarten to church and 
Sunday school work. 

The kindergarten section of the International Congress 
of Education held three forenoon sessions. The topics 
for discussion had been carefully outlined by Commissioner 
William T. Harris, under whose general direction the con- 
gresses were held. The general topic selected for dis- 
cussion at the first meeting was "The essential character- 
istics of the kindergarten as distinguished from the primary 
school." Under this the following sub-topics were con- 
sidered : "The gifts and occupations of the kindergarten." 



154 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

" Should the kindergarten attempt to teach reading and 
writing ?" "Should the games invented by Froebel be 
modified or added to?" "What is the place of song in 
the kindergarten and what degree of the dramatic element 
should accompany it?" These topics were discussed 
by Mrs. Alice H. Putnam of Chicago, Mrs. Sarah B. 
Cooper of San Francisco, Miss Sarah A. Stewart and 
Miss Constance Mackenzie of Philadelphia, Miss Mary 
C. McCulloch of St. Louis, Professor William N. Hailman 
of La Porte, and others. The topic selected for the second 
session was "Kindergarten training," the many aspects 
of which were discussed by Mrs. Eudora L. Hailman, 
Mrs. J. N. Crouse of Chicago, and others. The subject 
of "Symbolism" was selected for the last session, and was 
discussed by Miss Elizabeth Harrison of Chicago, Pro- 
fessor Earl Barnes of Leland Stanford University, Pro- 
fessor Hailman, and others present. No description of 
the congresses or of the exposition as a whole can convey 
an idea of the inspiration that the occasion gave to the 
kindergartners of the country. To the younger kinder- 
gartners just entering the ranks it was an inspiration to 
see and hear the leaders of their cause. To the older 
workers the enthusiasm of their younger sisters was the 
prophecy of what might be accomplished in the future. 
The extent to which the kindergarten had invaded the 
educational territory was a surprise to all and a promise 
of the ultimate surrender of the forces of conservatism 
in the teaching ranks. The kindergarten seed had been 
scattered broadcast, and they knew that the harvest would 



period of extension; organizations, etc. 155 

be forthcoming. They had made a great effort. The 
passing years have proved that it was not in vain, and that 
the kindergarten entered upon an enlarged sphere of 
influence from that date. 

The work of the Chicago Exposition for the kindergar- 
ten cause was so thoroughly done that succeeding ex- 
positions have found it unnecessary to make a correspond- 
ing effort in its behalf. The educational work done in 
connection with the Cotton States and International 
Exposition held in Atlanta in 1895 was of great value to 
the South, however, since the new education had not 
secured so strong a foothold in that section at that time 
as it had in other sections. The educational committee, 
composed largely of Atlanta teachers, cooperated with 
the managers of the Woman's Building to erect a Model 
School Building and to maintain a kindergarten and 
a primary department during the time that the exposi- 
tion was open. The kindergarten was conducted by 
Miss Mary Hill of the Louisville Free Kindergarten 
Association, and the primary department by Miss Minnie 
Holman of the Peabody Normal at Nashville, Tenn. 
The exhibits of school work were of value, but the inter- 
est centered in the work done with the children. The 
kindergarten was in the most conspicuous part of the 
Woman's Building, which in turn was situated in the 
most central and conspicuous part of the grounds. In 
consequence, says a writer, "the crowds in the kinder- 
garten were continuous; two or three hundred passing 
would step in for a while and then pass on, only to be 



156 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

replaced by a crowd equally large." It was unfortunate 
for the kindergartners and for the cause, however, that 
the children were those taken from a charitable institution, 
and that results were not what might have been hoped 
for. In spite of discouraging conditions, however, much 
was accomplished, and Miss Hill had occasion to explain 
the principles and methods of the kindergarten to hundreds 
of interested visitors. 

The new education was well represented at the Trans- 
Mississippi Exposition at Omaha in 1898, although the 
kindergarten was not emphasized. The Exposition mana- 
gers gave into the hands of the Omaha women all interests 
of an educational nature, the erection of the children's 
building, the organization of the school exhibits, and the 
management of the educational congresses. The kinder- 
garten received its share of attention in each of these lines. 
It was not due to lack of interest on the part of the Omaha 
women, however, that more effort was not centered on 
the kindergarten, as they had tried without success to 
secure the I. K. U. meeting for their city on that occasion. 
They were successful, however, in securing the meeting 
of the National Congress of Mothers, and since the 
emphasis of its meetings was placed upon the study of 
childhood and the importance of training for motherhood, 
it accomplished much for the kindergarten indirectly. 
Among the speakers were several prominent kindergart- 
ners, Miss Caroline M. C. Hart of Baltimore and Miss 
Amalie Hofer, and Miss Frances Newton of Chicago, 
being among them. 



period of extension; organizations, etc. 157 

The Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo in 1901 
furnished another occasion for acquainting the general 
public with the kindergarten idea. The Buffalo Kinder- 
garten Union utilized the opportunity and held a Kinder- 
garten Convocation lasting for three days, July 1-3. It 
is not often that the president of a great exposition is also 
the president of a kindergarten association, but Mr. John 
G. Milburn, president of the exposition, who welcomed 
the visiting kindergartners and the many interested out- 
siders at the first meeting, spoke in the capacity of presi- 
dent of the Buffalo Free Kindergarten Association as well. 
The leading speakers were Dr. William N. Hailman, Miss 
Virginia Graeff of Cleveland, Miss Rosemary Baum of 
Utica, Mrs. Mary Boomer Page of Chicago, Mr. Percival 
Chubb of New York, and Col. Francis W. Parker. An 
attractive exhibit from the kindergartens of Buffalo added 
to the interest. 

By the time that the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 
1904 was held, the kindergarten was no longer a waif 
seeking adoption into the educational family, but a child 
accorded full rights and privileges. The exhibits of the 
Palace of Education showed kindergarten work in its 
natural relations to other school work; the kindergarten 
took its turn with the cooking schools and manual training 
classes in exhibiting its work in actual operation ; and the 
N. E. A. and other educational congresses gave it adequate 
recognition on their programs. In theory the battle for 
the incorporation of the kindergarten into the school 
system has been won ; in practice much still remains to be 



158 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

accomplished. The great popular movements above 
mentioned have been noble allies and they will continue 
to do service in behalf of the kindergarten. But new 
problems are arising that call for new solutions. The 
discussion of these problems will be taken up in later 
chapters. 



CHAPTER IX 

The Period of Extension; Progress in Literature 

The literature of the kindergarten has been one of the 
sources from which the new educational thought has been 
derived. It struck a higher note in the gamut of educa- 
tion than had hitherto been sounded, and the whole 
educational symphony is being gradually modulated to 
the new key. Its beginnings have been noted, but an 
appreciation of its progress and influence requires a glance 
at the literature of general education. At the time that 
the kindergarten made its appearance in the United 
States the school was a dreary place, and it is not surprising 
that the literature of education, — what there was of it, 
— should have been lacking in inspiration and value. 
Barnard's American Journal of Education was established 
in 1855, and this, with a few other educational journals, 
devoted to the practical problems of school organization 
and administration, practically occupied the field. As 
early as i860 Mr. Barnard published a series of books 
called "Papers for the Teacher," consisting of articles 
reprinted from the Journal, bearing upon the practical 
problems of the schoolroom. He also published separately 
in pamphlet form, many of the articles that had appeared 
in the Journal. With this exception, the only book of 

i59 



l6o THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

direct value to teachers published before the Civil War 
was Page's "Theory and Practice of Teaching." This 
was published in 1847, an d is of great value still. Until 
education began to be considered as a process of develop- 
ment instead of a process of instruction only, no books 
on elementary education were written. As has been 
stated elsewhere, this change of view was due to the grow- 
ing acquaintance with the principles of Pestalozzi, and 
the center of Pestalozzian influence was the Oswego 
Normal School. In this school and among its graduates, 
sympathy with the joyous, overflowing life of childhood 
began to take the place of the repression that had hitherto 
prevailed, and the child's interest in the things of sense 
began to be recognized as having an educational value. 
An acquaintance with things began to be considered 
a necessary preliminary to the teaching of words, and 
objective teaching became the watchword of the new 
thought. The "object lesson" became the center of 
educational interest, and a course in object lessons was 
scheduled in every progressive school curriculum and 
program. This occasioned a demand for literature upon 
the subject, and Dr. Sheldon's books on "Object Lessons" 
and "Elementary Instruction," written in response to the 
demand, were widely read both in the United States and 
in England. Dr. A. E. Winship says in reference to Dr. 
Sheldon's work: "A general desire to know about the 
new ideas led to the preparation of the first books printed 
in America upon the adaptation of Pestalozzian principles 
to our school work. These books marked an era in 



i6i 

American education. This was really the birth of educa- 
tional literature in America." Calkins' "Manual of 
Object Teaching," published later, was a part of this same 
movement. 

During the decade between 1870 and 1880 several 
additions were made to the literature of education. Ab- 
bott's "Gentle Measures in the Management of the 
Young" was published in 1872. This was of great 
value to mothers as well as teachers and did much to 
change the general attitude toward childhood. In 1874 
Professor William N. Hailman published his "History of 
Pedagogy," which gave to many their first insight into 
the historic development of the new educational views. 
His "System of Objective Teaching" was published soon 
after. Two other books of importance were Wicker- 
sham's "School Management" and "Methods of Instruc- 
tion." Of the first of these, Dr. Winship says that it 
"was probably the best professional book issued up to 
that time, and remained a standard for a quarter of a 
century." He adds the interesting fact that it is the 
only American professional book ever translated into 
Japanese and used by the government of Japan as the 
official book for teachers to study. Both of these books 
were used as text-books in many of the normal schools of 
the United States for many years. 

The stock of pedagogical literature was being aug- 
mented also from other sources. Krusi's "Life of Pesta- 
lozzi" appeared in 1875 and Dr. Barnard's "American 
Pedagogy," "English Pedagogy," and "German Teachers 



1 62 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

and Reformers," reprints also of articles that had ap- 
peared in the Journal, were issued soon after. Johon- 
not's "Principles and Practice of Teaching," published 
in 1878, was a book of great value. The educational 
literature of the present still leaves much to be desired, 
but its relative abundance compared with the scarcity 
of books before 1880 makes one forget how recent is the 
new educational thought, and how gradual has been its 
development. Probably no one person has contributed 
more to the transformation of education than Colonel 
Francis W. Parker, but his first work, "Talks on Teach- 
ing," was not published until 1883, and the pen pictures 
of his work at Quincy, Mass., under the name of "Quincy 
Methods," was not given to the public until 1885. The 
first volume of the International Education Series, 
Rosenkranz' "Philosophy of Education," was not pub- 
lished until 1886. In fact few if any of the books that 
for years constituted a part of every pedagogical library, 
— Rousseau's "Emile," Payne's "Lectures on Education," 
White's "Elements of Pedagogy," Fitch's "Lectures on 
Teaching," Compayre"s "History of Pedagogy," W. H. 
Payne's "Contributions to the Science of Education," 
were available before 1885. "The literature of pedagogy 
is still in its infancy in the English language," said an 
educator of note in 1885. And so indeed it seemed. 

Against this general background of pedagogical litera- 
ture the increasing literature of the kindergarten is to be 
placed if it is to be rightly comprehended. It is astonish- 
ing but true that more books were translated and written 



PERIOD of extension; literature 163 

concerning the kindergarten during the decade between 
1870 and 1880 than were translated or written on the 
whole of general education besides. The progress in 
kindergarten literature during the period following can- 
not fail to interest all who are interested in the progress 
of education. The first notable contribution of the new 
decade was Barnard's "Kindergarten and Child Culture 
Papers," published in 1881, — a reprint, like his other 
volumes, of articles that had appeared in the Journal. 
Some important translations appeared during the decade, 
— " Goldammer's Manual," an English translation of 
the Mother Plays, by the Misses Lord, and Froebel's 
" Education of Man," translated first by Miss Jarvis and 
later by W. N. Hailman. This was the first volume of 
Froebelian literature to appear in the International Series. 
"The Hand Book of Froebel's System" was also trans- 
lated, as was the "Autobiography of Froebel," the former 
by Miss Wheelock, and the latter by Miss Emelie Michaelis 
and Mr. H. Keatley Moore of London. Some of the 
most important of Froebel's works were not translated 
until after 1890. A volume of Froebel Letters was trans- 
lated by A. H. Heineman in 1893. In 1895 the volume 
of essays known as "Pedagogics of the Kindergarten" 
was translated by Miss Jarvis, and the same year Miss 
Blow made a new translation of the Mother Plays. This 
was published in two volumes, the first of which was 
entitled "Mottoes and Commentaries of Froebel's Mother 
Play," and the second, "Songs and Music of Froebel's 
Mother Play." The three volumes appeared in the 



164 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

International Series, as did a later volume of essays, 
entitled "Education by Development," translated by 
Josephine Jarvis in 1899. Another volume of letters, 
entitled "FroebePs Letters on the Kindergarten," was 
translated by Miss Michaelis and Mr. Moore in 1896, and 
the translation and adaptation of Hanschman's "Life of 
Froebel" by Fanny Franks, known as the "Kindergarten 
System," in 1897. With the translation and publication 
in 1901 of the "Life of the Baroness von Buelow," written 
by her niece, the most important of Froebel' s own works 
and those of his intimate successors have been made 
available to the English reading public. 

The books above mentioned vary in value and popu- 
larity, but all have contributed something to the advance- 
ment of the new educational views. Some are of general 
educational interest and are therefore to be found in every 
up-to-date pedagogical library. Others concern them- 
selves with the details of kindergarten procedure and are 
therefore of value to the professional kindergartner mainly. 
The general deepening of insight into the principles of 
the kindergarten among the great body of kindergartners 
has rendered the specific kindergarten manuals less 
necessary than they were in the earlier years of the move- 
ment, and has occasioned an increasing demand for the 
books that embody the fundamental principles of the 
kindergarten and of education in general. The "Mother 
Play Book" and the "Education of Man" are used as 
text-books in every kindergarten training school in the 
country worthy of the name, and the "Pedagogies of the 



period of extension; literature 165 

Kindergarten" and others are used as reference books in 
most of them. The first two have been translated into 
many languages, and are known the world over. Froebel's 
"Autobiography," the two volumes of " Letters," the 
"Life of Froebel," and the "Life of the Baroness von 
Buelow" are used in every class in the history of educa- 
tion that places emphasis upon the historical development 
of the new educational movement. 

But the public has not depended wholly upon the works 
of Froebel himself for an acquaintance with the principles 
embodied in the Froebelian philosophy. One of the 
greatest services that the kindergarten has rendered to 
American education is the stimulus that it has given to 
original work. The kindergarten has been a fruitful 
theme for the essayist and author, and the list of books 
written within recent years as a result of kindergarten 
inspiration is a creditable one. Such books may be 
divided into two general classes, — those whose aim is 
the interpretation of the kindergarten, and those whose 
purpose is to discuss the development of childhood in 
general. These aims overlap in most cases, but the 
emphasis is usually upon the one or the other. Of the 
thirty or more books on the kindergarten written since 
1880 not more than six appeared during the decade be- 
tween 1880 and 1890. The new institution needed to 
be tested under the varying conditions of American life 
and education before its advocates could speak with 
the authority they wished, and those who were gaining 
the needed experience were at first too occupied with the 



1 66 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

experience itself to enter the field of authorship. Of the 
six books mentioned, Professor W. N. Hailman's "Law 
of Childhood," published in 1880, was the first. This 
was a series of essays that had appeared in The New Edu- 
cation. The second was Miss Peabody's " Lectures to 
Kindergartners," which was given to the public in 1886. 
This consisted of a series of lectures which for nine or 
ten years she had delivered before the kindergarten train- 
ing classes in Boston and other cities. 

The third book, published the same year, was entitled 
"The Kindergarten and the School. " It consisted of 
articles by four active workers, on the relation of the kin- 
dergarten to the school. The fourth volume was " Con- 
scious Motherhood" by Miss Emma Marwedel, published 
in 1887. This was an application of Froebel's doctrine 
to the development of childhood, based on such observa- 
tions as had been recorded by Preyer in his "Mind of the 
Child." As the means of arousing an interest in genetic 
psychology among kindergartners, this book was of more 
than ordinary value. The next book published during 
the decade was Mrs. Susan Pollock's "National Kinder- 
garten Manual." This was practical in character. The 
last one was Kate Douglas Wiggin's "Story of Patsy." 

To make even a brief analysis of all the books that have 
appeared since 1890 would require more space than can 
be given here. The time of their appearance is of interest, 
and certain ones call for special consideration. The 
first book of the new decade was Miss Elizabeth Harrison's 
"Study of Child Nature," which was published in 1890. 



period of extension; literature 167 

The next was Bowen's " Froebel and Education by Self- 
activity," an English book published in the Great Edu- 
cator Series in 1892. A volume of essays entitled "The 
Kindergarten," by Mrs. Wiggin and other prominent 
kindergartners, was published the same year, as was also 
the volume of essays called "Children's Rights," by Mrs. 
Wiggin and her sister, Nora A. Smith. Miss Jeannette 
R. Gregory's "Practical Suggestions to Kindergartners, 
Primary Teachers and Mothers" appeared in 1893, and 
Mrs. Mary C. Foster's "The Kindergarten of the Church" 
in 1894. The year 1895 was made memorable by the 
appearance of several books. One of these was Susan 
E. Blow's "Symbolic Education." Another was " Froe- 
bel' s Mother Play Songs, A Commentary," by Denton J. 
Snider. A third was Mrs. Wiggin and Miss Smith's 
"Kindergarten Gifts," the first of the three volumes 
collectively termed "The Republic of Childhood." The 
second volume, "Kindergarten Occupations," and the 
third, "Kindergarten Principles and Practice," followed 
the next year. In 1896 Miss Katharine Beebe's "Home 
Occupations for Little Children" was published, and also 
Miss Frederica Beard's "Kindergarten Sunday School." 
In 1897 another book on the application of kindergarten 
principles to Sunday school work appeared, Miss Mabel 
Wilson's "Love, Light, and Life for God's Little Children." 
Mrs. Andrea Hofer Proudfoot also published "A Mother's 
Ideals," and Professor J. L. Hughes' "Froebel's Educa- 
tional Laws for All Teachers." The volume called "Out- 
lines for Kindergarten and Primary Classes," by Misses 



1 68 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Maud Cannell and Margaret E. Wise, was also published 
at about this time. Several additional books appeared 
in 1899. One of these was Miss Blow's "Letters to a 
Mother," another was Miss Emelie Poulsson's "Love and 
Law in Child Training," another was Miss Smith's 
"Kindergarten in a Nutshell," and still another was Fred- 
erick Burk's "Kindergarten Problem." The follow- 
ing year Mr. Snider's "Psychology of Froebel's Play 
Gifts " and Miss Harrison's "Two Children of the Foot- 
hills " were published, and also "The Message of Froebel " 
and "Children of the Future," by Miss Smith. Mr. 
Snider has since published the "Life of Froebel," and 
Miss Harrison "The Building Gifts" and "Some Silent 
Teachers." 

Of the long list of books mentioned, all of which have 
served to further the kindergarten cause in some degree, 
a few call for special mention as indicating a special line 
of influence or illustrating a particular tendency. One 
of these is Miss Harrison's "Study of Child Nature," 
which has been translated into several languages, and is 
probably as widely known as any book on kindergarten 
subjects. This book was "the outcome of many years 
of experience in teaching young mothers to train their 
children in the home according to kindergarten principles," 
and although critics have declared it overdrawn, lacking 
in psychological value, and devoid of literary style, it 
meets the practical needs of the average mother better 
than many more pretentious books that have been written 
since its publication. The topics treated are such as 



PERIOD of extension; literature 169 

appeal to mothers, and they are treated in a simple, practi- 
cal manner. The chief value of the book, however, lies 
in the fact that it points out the advantage of building up 
the positive side of a child's nature. It has probably 
done as much as any one book on the list to acquaint 
mothers with kindergarten principles, and is an excellent 
one to awaken interest in the study of childhood. 

Differing widely in content and literary merit, but 
similar in their appeal to the public outside of the teach- 
ing profession, are the books by Mrs. Kate Douglas 
Wiggin and Miss Nora A. Smith. These, too, were the 
outgrowth of experience, — "of talks and conferences on 
Froebel's educational principles with successive groups 
of earnest young women, here, there, and everywhere, 
for fifteen years." The purpose of the books was to 
acquaint the public with the kindergarten, its instrumen- 
talities, — the gifts, games, songs, occupations, and stories, 
— and the method and purpose of their use. They were 
"purposely divested of technicalities and detail, in the 
hope that they would thus reach not only kindergarten 
students, but the many mothers and teachers who really 
long to know what Froebel's system of education is, and 
what it aims to do." These hopes have been more than 
realized. The public already familiar with "The Story 
of Patsy," and articles from the pen of its author, wel- 
comed anything that the gifted sisters might produce, and 
the charming style in which the books are written made 
them welcome additions to any library. They have prob- 
ably done more to popularize the kindergarten than have 



170 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

any other books written. They are of a kind that cannot 
grow old, and will continue their beneficent service to the 
cause of childhood for all time. 

Quite different in its aim and scope, but far-reaching 
in its results, is the modest little book, "The Kindergarten 
Sunday-School," by Miss Beard. That the kindergarten 
had a message for the religious teachers of childhood had 
been recognized from the beginning, and the expression 
of FroebePs views concerning the child's spiritual nature, 
at Chautauqua and other gatherings, had led, as has been 
stated, to important changes in Sunday school method. 
But few of the many admirable things that had been said 
had got into book form, however, and Miss Beard's book 
was a real contribution to Sunday school literature. It 
contains a discussion of kindergarten principles in their 
application to Sunday school work, and outlines a series 
of lessons for a Sunday school kindergarten that deserves 
commendation because it is based on the children's power 
of comprehension, not upon a church calendar, nor upon 
a plan of lessons made out for adults. While Miss Beard 
might profitably have made her book larger, it has been 
of great value, and has had a great influence in establish- 
ing the principle, now generally recognized, that a peda- 
gogical foundation is as essential in religious instruction 
as in any other. 

While certain books were thus meeting the needs of 
certain classes of people, a book appeared that most ad- 
mirably met the needs of school men, — whether or not 
they recognized that fact, — to many of whom the kinder- 



period of extension; literature 171 

garten still seems puerile, and Froebel without a message 
to any save kindergartners. That book is Professor 
Hughes's "Froebel's Educational Laws for all Teachers." 
Since Froebel has been exploited mainly in connection 
with the kindergarten, the educational public is inclined 
to forget that he was the principal of a boys' school for 
nearly twenty years before the idea of the kindergarten 
even occurred to him, and that his educational views were 
worked out with boys of varying ages before they were 
applied to the education of little children at all. Mr. 
Hughes says : ut The Education of Man ' was written in 
1826, fourteen years before he opened his first kinder- 
garten, but if he had died in 1827 his contribution to 
educational thought would have given him a foremost 
place among educational reformers." Mr. Hughes em- 
phasized the universal character of Froebel's principles, 
and the effect of their application to grade work, in the 
most admirable manner. The book is written from the 
standpoint of a school man, for other school men, and it 
has done much to bring about a more general recognition 
of Froebel's principles. 

Among the books claiming special attention is Miss 
Blow's "Symbolic Education," in the estimation of many 
the most noteworthy contribution to the literature of the 
kindergarten since Froebel. To it one must go for the 
philosophic interpretation of kindergarten principles and 
practice. It is not a book to appeal to the superficial, 
however, and its full significance will hardly dawn upon 
even the most thoughtful, without careful study. It is 



172 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

a book for the educational expert, and challenges the 
attention of the ablest thinkers. "It is one of the mile- 
stones in educational literature," says Miss Amalie Hofer 
in The Kindergarten Magazine. Miss Blow's later book, 
"Letters to a Mother," is along the same line, as are also 
the commentaries on Froebel by Denton J. Snider. They 
constitute an interpretation of Froebel, — an interpreta- 
tion against which there is a growing reaction. For 
the philosophy of the eighteenth and early nineteenth 
centuries, which shaped to a large extent the theory and 
the practice of the kindergarten, has been replaced by a new 
interpretation of man and the universe, — the inter- 
pretation to which modern psychology gives the cue. 
The books in question present the theory of the kinder- 
garten from the philosophical viewpoint most admirably, 
but that presentation is not one with which current edu- 
cational thought is in sympathy. 

As indicating the most extreme protest against the 
philosophical interpretation of the kindergarten, the 
unassuming little book by Frederick Burk, entitled 
"The Kindergarten Problem," is worthy of notice. While 
few kindergartners at the present time would be willing 
to cast kindergarten tradition aside to the extent that 
Mr. Burk has done, yet the book is stimulating and 
worthy of study, as an indication of the tendency that has 
been slowly coming to consciousness among the kinder- 
gartners of the country. 

Resulting in part from the kindergarten movement is 
a group of books written mainly by mothers familiar with 



period of extension; literature 173 

the new spirit in education and dealing principally with 
the problems of child training in the home. They are to 
be found in any list of books on child study, but differ 
from many of those classed under that head, since their 
aim is not merely the observation of facts in a child's 
development, but the application of the discovered prin- 
ciples of child training to the individual child in the in- 
dividual home. The familiarity that most of these show 
with the child study movement as well as with other 
current educational movements is significant in showing 
the kind of motherhood the age is producing. Mr. John 
Brisben Walker considers that one of the six distinct lines 
in which women have progressed since the Chicago Expo- 
sition is "the acceptance of motherhood as a profession." 
The books in question are proof that motherhood is being 
so considered. The books of this character were later 
in appearing than those on the kindergarten as such, but 
by their insight into its purposes and the tacit approval 
of its principles they have been of great value in further- 
ing the kindergarten movement. 

Among them are the following : " Children, their Models 
and Critics," by Mrs. Aldrich, published in 1892; "Beck- 
onings from Little Hands," by Patterson Du Bois, 1894; 
" Child Culture in the Home," by Mrs. Martha Mosher, 
and "The Study of a Child" by Mrs. Louise Hogan, 
both of which appeared in 1898; "Nursery Ethics" and 
"From the Child's Standpoint," by Mrs. Florence Hull 
Winterburn, published in 1899; "Concerning Children," 
by Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and "Childhood" by 



174 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Mrs. Theodore W. Birney, published in 1900; Grinnell's 
"How John and I Brought up the Child " and Chenery's 
"As the Twig is Bent " also belong to this class, as do several 
of the books by kindergartners already named, — par- 
ticularly Miss Blow's "Letters to a Mother," Miss Smith's 
"Children of the Future," Mrs. Proudfoot's "A Mother's 
Ideals," and Miss Harrison's "A Study of Child Nature." 
Since these were not inspired by the kindergarten move- 
ment, and cannot be considered its product, no mention 
is made of a long list of books on child study and genetic 
psychology as such, whose purpose is scientific observa- 
tion. Most of these, however, have reenforced the funda- 
mental conclusions concerning childhood which underlie 
kindergarten procedure, and have therefore served an 
excellent purpose in advancing the kindergarten cause. 
The increasing influence of the kindergarten was not 
due wholly to the increasing literature of the kind men- 
tioned. The appreciation of the kindergarten for school 
purposes came rather through practical than through 
theoretical lines. The things which the kindergarten had 
emphasized at first, — the gifts and occupations, — had 
appealed to the primary teacher mainly as means of busy 
work. But when the story began to claim a larger place, 
when gardening and nature excursions became a part of 
the kindergarten program, and when the child's song be- 
gan to receive increasing attention, she began to wake up. 
The kindergarten song book contained songs of a quality 
not to be found in the primary school repertoire. The 
stories designed for kindergarten use appealed to the 



period of extension; literature 175 

children's interest as her own, if she had any, did not. 
Why should the kindergarten song or story book be con- 
fined to kindergarten use alone? Until the kindergarten 
came, the rote song was almost unknown in school work. 
The story, too, was barely recognized as an educational 
instrument. There may have been a carefully graded 
course in music, but the children were drilled in the 
elements of musical notation, and seldom sang the songs 
that they really loved. There were courses in reading and 
language, but little or no telling of the stories dear to the 
heart of every child. Children were taught to read, write, 
and spell, but were given no food for the imagination. 

The need of new and better songs, and of more and 
better stories for kindergarten use, had made itself felt in 
the early years of the movement. When that need was 
supplied for the kindergarten, it was supplied in large 
measure for the primary school as well. Perhaps none 
of the kindergarten instrumentalities has received a greater 
measure of criticism than the songs originally devised for 
kindergarten use. Without denying the value of song in 
connection with the gift plays, it must be admitted that the 
conditions for true musical feeling and real musical ex- 
pression are lacking in most of these. The composition 
of songs truly musical and childlike in thought, word, and 
melody was one of the tasks to be accomplished if the 
kindergarten was to further the child's musical develop- 
ment to the degree that it should . That this was recognized 
is shown by the large number of kindergarten song books 
that have been published since 1880. The first of these in 



176 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

order of time was Clara Beeson Hubbard's "Merry Songs 
and Games," published in 1881. Next came Mrs. Wig- 
gin's "Kindergarten Chimes," published in 1885. Miss 
Eleanor Smith's "Songs for Little Children" and Mrs. 
Hailman's "Songs, Games, and Rhymes" for kindergarten 
and primary school appeared in 1887. These seemed to 
meet the demand for a few years, and then came "Stories 
in Song," by Misses Emerson and Brown, in 1890. " Songs 
and Games for Little Ones," by Misses Jenks and Walker, 
in 1892, and "Song Stories for the Kindergarten," by 
Misses Patty and Mildred Hill, in 1893. From 1896 on 
several others appeared. Among these are: "Song 
Echoes," by the Misses Jenks and Rust; "Small Songs 
for Small Singers," by Professor Neidlinger; "Songs for 
the Child World," by Mrs. Jessie L. Gaynor, and "Holiday 
Songs," compiled by Miss Emelie Poulsson. Miss Clara 
L. Anderson's "Instrumental Characteristic Rhythms" 
and Miss Mari Ruef Hofer's " Music for the Child World " 
have met an additional musical need of the kindergarten, 
— that for appropriate marches and other forms of in- 
strumental music. They have furnished a stimulus to 
musical interpretation on the part of children, and have 
given the kindergartner's musical repertoire a richness that 
it did not have in the earlier years. By the publication of 
her two books on traditional games, the one entitled 
"Singing Games," published in 1896, and the other, 
"Popular Folk Games," published in 1907, Miss Hofer 
has rendered the kindergarten an additional service. 
The customary kindergarten games had been criticised 



period of extension; literature 177 

as being too largely symbolical and lacking in the ele- 
ments that constitute a good game. The application 
of the kindergarten idea to school and playground showed 
the need of games of a different kind, and the books in 
question are a response to that need. Although many 
of the games are intended for children beyond the kinder- 
garten age, the spirit of the books has brought about a new 
attitude toward the games of the kindergarten proper, — 
an attitude that promises well for the future. 

Considering the recognition given to the child's love 
of rhyme and story, it is somewhat surprising that the 
kindergarten story book should have been nearly a decade 
later than the song book in making its appearance. Miss 
Poulsson had published her "Finger Rhymes" in 1889, 
but no story books appeared until the following year. 
During the year no less than four appeared, — Miss 
Sara E. Wiltse's "Kindergarten Stories and Morning 
Talks"; Mrs. Van Kirk's "Stories for the Kindergarten 
and Home"; "The Story Hour" by Mrs. Wiggin and 
Miss Smith; and "Kindergarten Gems" by Misses 
Ketchum and Jorgenson. Others soon followed — " Child's 
Christ Tales" and Miss Wiltse's "Stories for Kinder- 
garten and Primary School" in 1892, the "Boston Collec- 
tion of Kindergarten Stories," Miss Poulsson's collection 
entitled, "In the Child's World," and Miss Howliston's 
"Cat Tails and Other Tales" in 1893. The last-named 
book was not distinctively a kindergarten collection, though 
it belongs to the kindergarten story books in spirit. Miss 
Harrison's "In Story Land" appeared in 1895, and since 



178 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

that date a number of others have been published. Among 
these are Mrs. Clara Dillingham Pierson's collections of 
animal stories, — "Among the Meadow People," "Among 
the Farmyard People," etc., Miss Madge Bigham's " Stories 
of Mother Goose Village," and Miss Maud Lindsay's 
"Mother Stories." The number of good collections of 
stories for use in the primary grades has become too large 
to mention. 

The publication of the above-named story books, 
particularly the earlier ones, had a special value at the time 
of their appearance, in the early nineties. The story has 
come to hold an important place as an educational instru- 
ment in the primary grades, but as before stated, its 
use was but beginning at the time in question. The 
kindergarten story has been peculiarly the vehicle of the 
kindergarten thought, and has come to have definite and 
easily recognized earmarks of its own. The fact that there 
were practically no other collections of stories in the educa- 
tional market at the time gave the kindergarten story books 
a special value, and obtained for them a large use among 
primary teachers. The service that the kindergarten 
song book rendered in acquainting primary teachers with 
the kindergarten principles has been mentioned, but the 
service that the collections of kindergarten stories ren- 
dered was no less marked. 

No record of kindergarten literature during the period 
under consideration would be complete that did not 
include a mention of the kindergarten periodicals, — The 
Kindergarten Magazine, The Kindergarten Review, and The 



LITERATURE 1 79 

Child Garden. The story of The Kindergarten Messenger, 
and of The New Education has been told in an earlier 
chapter. When the latter became merged in The Public 
School of Boston in 1883, the kindergarten movement was 
left without representation in the field of educational 
journalism, and remained so until 1888 when The Kinder- 
garten Magazine was founded by Mrs. Alice B. and Miss 
Cora L. Stockham of Chicago. The new magazine was 
carried on under their management until August, 1892, 
when it was purchased by Miss Amalie Hofer and Miss 
Andrea Hofer, now Mrs. Proudfoot. The following year 
it became the organ of the Kindergarten Literature Com- 
pany, a stock company that had been organized by a 
number of the leading kindergartners of the country for 
the promotion of the kindergarten cause. Miss Amalie 
Hofer retained the editorship of The Kindergarten Maga- 
zine and Miss Andrea Hofer assumed the responsibility 
of The Child Garden, a new magazine of story song and 
play, established in 1892 and published by the same com- 
pany. This magazine did excellent service in furnishing 
stories and suggestions during the ten or more years of 
existence, but it was finally discontinued. The Kinder- 
garten Magazine continued under the able leadership of 
Miss Amalie Hofer until 1903, when it was transferred to 
Miss Bertha Johnston and Miss Minerva Jourdan. In 
1906 it became the property of Dr. E. Lyell Earle of New 
York City. It is now The Kindergarten and Primary 
Magazine. 

The Kindergarten Review, which for the past nine years 



l8o THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

has shared the field of kindergarten journalism with The 
Kindergarten Magazine, began its existence as The Kinder- 
garten News in Buffalo in 1890. It was edited by Louis 
H. Allen and published as the organ of the Buffalo Free 
Kindergarten Association. It eventually became the 
property of the Milton Bradley Company of Springfield, 
Mass., and was ably edited by Henry W. Blake. When the 
Misses Emelie and Laura Poulsson succeeded to the 
editorship upon Mr. Blake's death in 1897, the publica- 
tion was enlarged and its name changed to The Kinder- 
garten Review. The Misses Poulsson continued the 
editorship until 1904, when it was assumed by Miss May 
Murray, who still conducts it. 

It would be well-nigh impossible to estimate the value of 
the service that these publications have rendered the kin- 
dergarten and the cause of American education in general. 
The Kindergarten Magazine appeared when the movement 
was still largely unorganized, and public opinion on the 
subject was still in the process of formation. 

During the important period from 1890 to 1900, when 
the movement was spreading out and assuming definite 
character, the editor traveled at her own expense, orga- 
nizing kindergartens, associations, and training schools, 
following up every symptom of interest that manifested 
itself. A similar service was rendered by Mrs. Lucretia 
Willard Treat. By reports of the work in the different 
kindergarten centers, by accounts of meetings of interest 
to kindergartners, and by articles along kindergarten and 
allied lines, The Kindergarten Magazine gave unity to the 



PERIOD OF extension; LITERATURE 1 81 

movement and served as a watch tower from which the 
field of kindergarten progress could be scanned. The 
splendid enthusiasm shown by the kindergartners of the 
country at the time of the Columbian Exposition was 
augmented by and reflected in The Kindergarten Maga- 
zine, and the success which the kindergarten scored on that 
occasion was due in no small degree to its efforts. From 
1888 to 1901 not less than two thousand articles on the 
kindergarten and allied phases of elementary education, 
written by the ablest educators of the country, had ap- 
peared in its pages. By its practical suggestions no less 
than by its reports from the kindergarten field, it has 
translated the kindergarten ideal into actual kindergarten 
procedure, not only to young kindergartners but to mothers 
and educators all over the land. It has had a positive 
tone, moreover, and has spoken in no uncertain voice on 
questions of educational policy. It has reflected the social 
movement and has interpreted educational progress anew, 
in terms of the great West. It has furthered the kinder- 
garten cause in a material way, — the Kindergarten 
Literature Company having, during a particular period of 
four years, earned and spent $10,000 in sending out liter- 
ature and establishing kindergartens. 

The Kindergarten Review came into the field later, when 
much of the pioneer work had been done, but it has ren- 
dered a like service during the years of its existence. The 
bound volumes of these publications are indispensable 
to any one wishing to gain an insight into the origin and 
growth of the kindergarten movement in the United States. 



1 82 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

The literature of the kindergarten, both periodical and per- 
manent, has won a place for itself in American life and 
thought. The library of the teacher is incomplete without 
an infusion of Froebelian doctrine; the church worker 
unfamiliar with it is out of touch with current problems; 
the home that has not felt its influence lacks some of the 
qualities the ideal home possesses. Horace Scudder 
says that the literature of the world has been greatly en- 
riched since poverty and childhood have been annexed 
to its domain. The educational literature of America has 
been greatly enriched by the contribution of the kinder- 
garten; the kindergarten, the kindergarten child, and the 
kindergartner herself have gained entrance to the field of 
general literature, there to do service in the cause of human 
advancement. 



CHAPTER X 

The Kindergarten in the Public School System 

That the kindergarten had been well recommended 
by means of the agencies described in preceding chapters 
cannot be questioned, and its speedy adoption by the school 
was anticipated by the oversanguine. During the first 
decade of the period under consideration such adoption 
was far from being as rapid as some had hoped, however, 
although this was not wholly an unmixed evil. The rea- 
sons for such tardiness were not far to seek. The kinder- 
garten associations were only beginning their work and 
required time to make their influence felt. The other 
agencies that have aided in building up sentiment favorable 
to the kindergarten either did not come into existence until 
the decade between 1880 and 1890 or were not strong 
enough to exert the influence which they exercised later. 
The church needed a deeper insight into the social signifi- 
cance of Christianity before it could advocate the kinder- 
garten with vigor. The Woman's Christian Temper- 
ance Union, organized in 1874, did not undertake work 
bearing upon the kindergarten until nearly the middle of 
the next decade. Women's clubs, the first of which was 
organized in 1878, did not undertake the study of education 
until many years later. The first social settlement in the 

183 



184 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

United States was not opened until 1887, and the study 
of education in universities and colleges had hardly more 
than begun. The "new psychology" did not make itself 
felt until the latter part of the decade under consideration, 
and the new conception of education did not become 
sufficiently general to be dynamic until the decade following. 
While a sufficient number of cities became converted to 
kindergarten adoption during this decade to prove that the 
kindergarten was making itself felt, it was not until the last 
decade of the century that public school kindergartens 
became common. If there is any appropriateness in 
calling the decade from 1880 to 1890 the Association 
Decade in kindergarten history, the decade from 1890 to 
1900 may with equal appropriateness be called the Public 
School Decade in the kindergarten movement. Kinder- 
garten associations had been formed before 1880, it is 
true, and their organization did not cease with the 
close of the decade. So, too, public school kindergar- 
tens had come into existence before 1890, and their 
number is rapidly increasing, although that decade 
has passed. Each became general, however, during the 
decade named. The adoption of the kindergarten before 
1890 was infrequent enough to occasion comment when it 
occurred. The non-adoption of that institution is likely 
to occasion comment at the present time. 

Apart from these general considerations, the main 
reasons for the slow march of kindergarten progress 
were two. One was the expense of maintaining kinder- 
gartens, which was supposed to be much greater than 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 185 

that of maintaining primary schools. This is due in 
part to the cost of kindergarten material, but in greater 
measure to the larger number of teachers supposed to be 
required for a given number of children. "The surprises 
of experiences," to use Miss Blow's apt phrase, have cor- 
rected this impression. Her own words on this point are 
of interest. "In the early days of the kindergarten move- 
ment we were told over and over again that the Froebelian 
ideal could not be carried out if there were more than ten 
or fifteen children in a kindergarten. A kindergarten of 
fifty was condemned by the intolerant as a surrender to 
the hostile powers, and was excused by the tolerant as 
perhaps an unavoidable bowing in the house of Rimmon. 
To-day I do not hesitate in saying that as far as my observa- 
tion goes, the average educational results reached in the 
larger kindergartens far surpass the average results reached 
in a kindergarten attended by ten or fifteen children. " 
The bugbear of expense continued to frighten school boards 
for many years, however, and the objection continues 
to be raised even now. In 1886 the Commissioner of 
Education said : "The work of making the kindergarten a 
part of the school system is only a question of time. The 
most eminent educators of the day recognize and indorse 
its principles and methods, but the expense involved 
prevents its becoming at once the lowest grade of the 
public school system." Superintendent Seaver of Boston 
said at about the same time, "The next step forward is to 
recognize and establish the kindergarten as a part of the 
system of public instruction." 



l86 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

In spite of the slowness of its adoption by the school, 
however, the kindergarten was making itself felt, even in 
those communities that never adopted it as such. Kinder- 
garten song books found their way to primary teachers' 
desks; plants and pictures appeared in schoolroom win- 
dows and on schoolroom walls ; and the presence of scis- 
sors, folding papers, sewing cards, and modeling clay was 
pointed to as evidence that "the kindergarten was being 
introduced." School boards and superintendents were 
delighted to have the primary teachers assume the kinder- 
garten manner, and learn something of " kindergarten 
methods." " Little progress has been made in the establish- 
ment of kindergartens at public expense," said Dr. Harris 
towards the end of the decade, "nevertheless the system 
has had a marked effect in improving the methods in the 
primary grades." But while many cities thus dabbled in 
the edges of the kindergarten pool or stood hesitating upon 
its brink, but few had the courage to take the real plunge. 
To many the adoption of "kindergarten methods" in the 
school rather than the adoption of the kindergarten itself 
seemed quite sufficient. The interest awakened by the 
kindergarten as a part of the school system, which had 
made St. Louis the center of educational interest during 
the seventies, seemed transferred to an interest in the 
adoption of the characteristic features of the kindergarten 
in the grades. During the eighties, therefore, educational 
interest was transferred from St. Louis to La Porte, Ind., 
and the Cook County Normal School in Chicago, where 
Professor W. N. Hailman and Colonel Francis W. Parker 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 1 87 

were respectively engaged in the attempt to pour the wine 
of the new educational thought into the bottles of tra- 
ditional school conditions. 

The second reason for the slowness of kindergarten 
adoption by the school was more fundamental. The 
school laws of most states did not permit of the expendi- 
ture of public school funds for the education of children 
of kindergarten age. But three states in the Union have a 
school age of four years, — Connecticut, Wisconsin, and 
Oregon. These are, therefore, the only states in which 
children of kindergarten age can be educated at public 
expense. Whether kindergarten work may legally be 
substituted for the customary grade work without legisla- 
tive action depends upon the school law of the individual 
states. In two states, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 
there is no age limit for entering school. In these states, 
therefore, the school age furnished no obstacle to the es- 
tablishment of kindergartens. In eleven additional states 
— Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, New 
Jersey, Mississippi, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, 
Nebraska, and the territory of New Mexico — the school 
age is five years. Children entering school at the age of 
five are still within the period for which the kindergarten 
is intended. Whether kindergarten work may be sub- 
stituted for the customary grade work during the first year 
depends in these states also upon the school law of the 
individual states. In Maine, New Hampshire, Kansas, 
and Nebraska the law allows the local school authorities 
to determine the character of the school instruction. If 



188 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

they see fit to substitute kindergarten for the customary 
first-grade instruction, there is nothing in the law to pre- 
vent their doing so. Unless the admission of children 
below the legal age is desired, therefore, no legislation is 
needed in these states to make the kindergarten a part of 
the school system. This is also true in Nevada and South 
Dakota, in which the school age is six. In the other states 
of the group in question legislation was necessary before 
kindergartens could be legally established. 

In the states in which the school age is six or more the 
problem is somewhat different. In Alabama and Virginia 
the school age is seven; in Texas it is eight. In all the 
other states not already mentioned, it is six. That six- 
year-old children can still be benefited by attending 
kindergarten, no one will question. The kindergarten was 
primarily intended, however, for children below that age, 
and school authorities may well question the advisability 
of spending public school money for kindergartens for 
children of six years. If the children are to gain the real 
benefit that the kindergarten is intended to confer, a lower- 
ing of the school age is needed in states of this class. A 
general lowering of the school age in a given state, for the 
sake of making the establishment of kindergartens pos- 
sible, must of necessity impose a hardship, however, upon 
the localities where kindergartens cannot be established. 
The legislation to make the establishment of kindergartens 
possible in states of this class has usually specified that 
children below the legal age should be admitted in case of 
the establishment of kindergartens only. Several of the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 1 89 

states in question have enacted such legislation. Others 
have attempted it without success, and some consider that 
the time to effect it has not yet come. Missouri, the first 
state to establish public kindergartens, has a school age of 
six years. When the initial experiment with the kinder- 
garten was made in St. Louis, children of five years were 
admitted, but the legal age of entrance has since been 
insisted upon, and the children in the St. Louis kinder- 
gartens, as well as those in the kindergartens of Kansas 
City, are all, therefore, six or more years of age. The 
attempt to lower the school age has been made several 
times without success. The children who attended the 
first kindergartens in New Orleans were six likewise, but 
the age at which children might be admitted to kinder- 
gartens was lowered by the Constitutional Convention of 
1898. In several of the Southern states that have adopted 
the kindergarten the children are of legal age, — six or 
more. These facts are mentioned to show the difficulties 
with which the kindergarten had to contend in becoming 
a part of the school system. In general, "any city, through 
powers inherent in its charter, may maintain kindergartens 
provided they are supported wholly by local taxation." 
During the decade from 1880 to 1890, as far as known, 
but three states enacted legislation to make the establish- 
ment of kindergartens possible. These were Vermont, 
Indiana, and Connecticut. Cities in other states that 
adopted the kindergarten during this decade did so through 
powers inherent in their charters, or because legislation 
was unnecessary. 



190 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

In spite of the difficulties still to be surmounted, the 
kindergarten made its way into the school from 1880 to 
1890 with a fair degree of success. Boston had established 
a public school kindergarten in 1870, which was, however, 
discontinued after a few years of existence. The organi- 
zation of the St. Louis kindergartens had been effected in 
1873, as has been stated. No records can be found to show 
that it was adopted by any other public school during the 
decade from 1870 to 1880 with the exception of Forest- 
ville, 111., a suburb of Chicago and now a part of the city. 
This was for many years the only public school kinder- 
garten in Illinois. The cities to adopt it during the decade 
from 1880 to 1890 were as follows : Milwaukee, Wis., 
in 1881 ; Fort Collins, Colo., in 1882 ; Des Moines, la., 
and Portland, Me., in 1883; Muskegon, Mich., and La 
Porte, Ind., in 1884; New Orleans, La., Hartford, Conn., 
and Sheboygan, Wis., in 1886; Boston, Mass., and Phila- 
delphia, Pa., in 1887; Rochester, N.Y., in 1888; Los 
Angeles, Cal., in 1889. Several other cities are known to 
have adopted public school kindergartens during the 
decade, but the exact date could not be determined. 
Among these are: Burlington, Bayfield, Baraboo, Lake 
Geneva, and Hayward, Wis. ; New Rochelle, Mt. Vernon, 
White Plains, Yonkers, Port Chester, and Carlstadt, 
N.Y. ; Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor, Mich. ; Providence 
and Newport, R.I. ; and Pueblo, Colo. This is a fair 
showing, since it included five of the larger cities of the 
country, — St. Louis, Milwaukee, Boston, Philadelphia, 
and New Orleans. Each of these cities was a center 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 191 

whose influence could not fail to be widely felt. It must 
not be supposed, however, that a complete system of 
kindergartens was established at one stroke in the cities 
in question. In Philadelphia the thirty kindergartens that 
had been established and maintained by the Sub-Primary 
School Society were assumed by the board of education, 
and in Boston the fourteen that had been established and 
maintained by Mrs. Shaw. In Los Angeles twelve kin- 
dergartens were adopted by the school, but in most cases 
the experiment was made with one or two, and additional 
ones were opened as these first ones proved successful. 

The acceptance of the kindergarten as a part of the 
school system during the decade in question was both 
indicated and advanced by the organization of kinder- 
garten departments in state and city normal schools. 
Such departments had been created in the state normal 
schools at Oshkosh, Wis., and Winona, Minn., in 1880. 
In 1882 they were added to the normal schools at Os- 
wego and Fredonia in New York, and at Emporia, 
Kan. Connecticut added such departments to its normal 
schools at about the same time, and Michigan did the same 
in 1889. Other schools may have taken the same action, 
but the date of the establishment of the kindergarten depart- 
ments could not be ascertained. The training of kinder- 
gartners has not been the chief aim of these departments ; in 
fact some of them make no effort in that direction. They 
aim in large part to acquaint the students in the general 
courses with the procedure of the kindergarten and the 
principles upon which such procedure is based, as a matter 



192 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

of educational intelligence. Though not a state institu- 
tion, the Cook County Normal School, established in 1883, 
must be included because of its wide influence in this 
direction, under the leadership of Colonel Parker. A 
similar influence is exerted by those city normal schools 
having a general course but including a kindergarten de- 
partment. Of these, such institutions as the Philadelphia 
Normal School and the Boston Normal School are con- 
spicuous examples. "It is through the normal school 
that the adjustment of Froebel's system to our public 
schools must be made, if it is to be made at all," said Com- 
missioner Harris in 1884, commenting on the recent es- 
tablishment of kindergarten departments in such schools. 
That they have exerted a marked influence on the spread of 
Froebelian thought is generally recognized. That they 
will compel the reorganization of existing forms of kinder- 
garten training in the near future is evident to those who 
have made a study of the matter. 

At the beginning of the last decade of the century the 
kindergarten outlook was fairly promising, although the 
clear-sighted realized that much effort was still needed to 
place it upon the proper basis as a part of the educational 
system. In the cities where the kindergarten had been 
adopted it was winning golden opinions, and the results 
were more than justifying the hopes of its friends. At the 
Toronto meeting of the N. E. A. in 1891 the following 
resolutions were passed: "Resolved that we view with 
pleasure the spread of kindergarten principles and methods 
and trust that they may be generally introduced into the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 1 93 

public schools. To this end we recommend that the dif- 
ferent states secure the necessary legislation that will en- 
able communities to support and maintain kindergartens 
at public expense." Such legislation was one of the fea- 
tures of kindergarten progress during the decade then just 
entered upon. 

The effort that the kindergartners of the country felt it 
necessary to make for their cause at the Columbian Ex- 
position and the organization and unification of the kinder- 
garten forces that such effort demanded, have been dis- 
cussed in another chapter. The kindergarten cause would 
have continued to advance had there been no such event, 
but ten years of effort without it could hardly have accom- 
plished as much as was accomplished by its means. 
Nothing short of an occasion so momentous could have 
brought the kindergartners from all parts of the country 
together and nothing less than an opportunity so great 
could have spurred them on to the effort made. The 
indorsement and influence of the exposition leaders and 
managers; the legislation enacted within the next few 
years ; the books written, and the extension of the kinder- 
garten into new circles of influence, — all these combined 
to make the last decade of the century a memorable one in 
kindergarten history. 

It would be impossible to enumerate even the principal 
cities that adopted the kindergarten during the decade 
under consideration, but the fact that nearly all the larger 
cities did so is significant. Though several strategic 
cities adopted it before the Columbian Exposition, the 



194 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

larger number that did so during the latter part of the 
decade is a proof of the increasing momentum occasioned 
by that event. Among those adopting it the first few 
years of the decade were the following: in 1891, Racine 
and Dodgeville, Wis., Lexington, Ky., Utica, N.Y., 
Saginaw, Mich., San Jose, Cal., and Sun Dance, Wyo., 
the latter being the first public school kindergarten to be 
established in the state ; in 1892, St. Paul, Minn., Chicago 
and Evanston, 111., Beloit and Superior, Wis., San Diego, 
Cal., Worcester, Mass., and Cohoes, N.Y. ; in 1893, New 
York City, Syracuse, and Jamestown, N.Y., Omaha and 
Lincoln, Neb., and El Paso, Texas, — the first one to be 
established in that state. During the latter half of the 
decade the kindergarten gained entrance into the following 
cities: Sacramento, Cal., Denver, Col., Newark, N.J., 
Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio, Kansas City, Mo., Council 
Bluffs, la., Portland, Ore., Washington, D.C., Louis- 
ville, Ky., Spokane, Wash., Buffalo, N.Y., and doubtless 
several others. Kindergartens are conducted in seventy 
or more public schools in Pittsburg and Allegheny, but they 
are controlled by the Pittsburg and Allegheny Kinder- 
garten Associations, though the school boards of the two 
cities contribute generously to their support. In the 
Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1 897-1 898, 
one hundred eighty-nine cities of over eight thousand 
inhabitants are named as maintaining public kinder- 
gartens. There are doubtless as many smaller ones doing 
the same. The number of kindergartens given for these 
one hundred eighty-nine cities was thirteen hundred sixty- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 1 95 

five, a number known to be much too small. Dr. Harris 
states that the most difficult statistical work of the Bureau 
for 1897 and 1898 and the most unsatisfactory in its re- 
sults was that of collecting information concerning the 
kindergartens. The proportion of public school kinder- 
gartens sending returns was doubtless greater than the 
proportion of private ones. Of the three thousand of 
the latter known to be in existence nearly one half failed 
to reply to the request for information. Unsatisfactory as 
the data are, they form some basis for computing the entire 
number of kindergartens in the country, public, private, 
and charitable. By the end of the century, five thousand 
would be a conservative estimate. In 1903 Miss Ander- 
son's Annual, already referred to, gave a list of over four 
hundred forty cities maintaining public kindergartens. 
The discrepancy between these figures and those given by 
the Bureau of Education is due in part probably to the 
increase during the five years that had passed, but more 
to the other fact that all the cities and towns were given, 
regardless of their size. According to this the five states 
having the largest number of cities in which public school 
kindergartens have been adopted are: New York, 86; 
Wisconsin, 71; New Jersey, 56; Michigan, 43; Massa- 
chusetts, 34. The increase since the new century opened 
has been most gratifying, and includes several of the larger 
cities that had not hitherto adopted them. Among these 
are Minneapolis, Baltimore, Buffalo, Toledo, Cincin- 
nati, and Detroit, in the order named. 

The progress of the kindergarten in the South since the 



I96 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

opening of the new century has been particularly gratify- 
ing. Of the 189 cities mentioned by the Commissioner 
of Education as maintaining kindergartens in 189 7- 1898, 
94 were in the North Atlantic group ; but 2 in the Southern 
Atlantic ; 8 in the South Central ; 68 in the North Central ; 
and 17 in the Western. In an article prepared by Miss 
Eveline A. Waldo of New Orleans for the St. Louis meet- 
ing of the N. E. A. in 1904, it is stated that public school 
kindergartens have been established in all the Southern 
states but four, — South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, 
and Arkansas. The conclusion that there were none in 
these states was based upon the fact that the persons 
questioned had not replied to her inquiry. In addition 
to these four, Miss Anderson's Annual indicates that in 
1903, at least, there were none in Idaho, Delaware, North 
Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginia, — a total of 
nine. In 1907 public school kindergartens had been 
established in West Virginia also. 

The kindergarten is becoming a part of the school 
system also in the countries that have recently come under 
the control of the United States. It forms an integral 
part of the school system of Cuba, it has secured a foot- 
hold in Porto Rico, and is making rapid progress in the 
Philippines. The report of the Secretary of Public 
Instruction of the Philippine Islands for 1904 speaks of 
the kindergartens of Manila in the following words: 
"This work has been rapidly developed in the past year. 
Seven kindergartens are maintained, one being for English- 
speaking children. Seven American teachers are engaged 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 1 97 

in the work in Manila under the direction of a highly quali- 
fied supervisor. There are twelve Filipino assistants. 
The attendance has been good and the interest excellent. 
In many cases there have been applications for member- 
ship far exceeding the capacity of the schools. Mothers' 
meetings have been held with exhibits of the work of the 
children, and these seem to have been enthusiastically 
received, the attendance often running as high as fifty. 

"As stated above, the work has as one of its objects 
the training of young women to give kindergarten instruc- 
tion in the provinces. The desire is to have a successful 
kindergarten established in each provincial capital, not 
only for its value to the children attending, but also as an 
exhibit to the public of correct teaching principles, and 
as a feature of the training of the primary teacher.-" 

The legislation which has enabled the kindergarten to 
become a part of the school system to this extent is worthy 
of attention. As already stated, Vermont, Indiana, and 
Connecticut secured the legislation needed to make 
kindergartens possible in 1888. The first state to legis- 
late upon the subject during the decade between 1890 
and 1900 was Michigan, which in 1891 passed a law 
authorizing the establishment of kindergartens for children 
between the ages of four and seven years. The next state 
to take action was Ohio, which in 1893 secured the passage 
of a bill authorizing the establishment of kindergartens 
for children between four and six years of age, but pro- 
viding that they must be supported wholly by local taxa- 
tion. Although bills providing for the establishment 



198 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

of kindergartens had been presented to two preceding 
legislatures, Illinois did not secure the passage of a bill 
to that effect until 1895. Kindergartens had been opened 
in Chicago, although there was no legal sanction for this 
action. The bill referred to provided for the support of 
the kindergartens, not from the school tax fund of the 
state, but from the local fund. This meant that the kinder- 
garten must be submitted to the vote of the people. It 
was not so submitted, however, until 1899, when unfore- 
seen circumstances made it inevitable. A shortage of 
the school funds threatened the abolishing of the sixty- 
three kindergartens that had been established, and the 
kindergarten was therefore submitted to the people at the 
spring election. The 87,000 votes cast in its favor to the 
15,000 cast against it placed the kindergarten upon a 
secure footing in that city from that time on. 

The stimulus given to the kindergarten movement by 
the Chicago Exposition is shown in part by the number 
of states that passed laws before the decade closed, making 
the establishment of public school kindergartens possible. 
These were Washington, New York, Pennsylvania, Iowa, 
Wisconsin, California, Oregon, Colorado, Louisiana, 
Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, the District of Colum- 
bia, and the territory of Arizona. Several others, Virginia, 
Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, Utah, and Idaho, have enacted 
laws to the same effect since the new century opened. 
Laws authorizing the establishment of public school 
kindergartens have also been passed in West Virginia, 
Maryland, and Wyoming, but the date of the legislation 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM igg 

in question could not be learned. Since Maine, New 
Hampshire, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and 
Nevada consider that kindergartens may be established 
without legislation to that effect, and legislation is un- 
necessary in Massachusetts and Rhode Island because the 
schools are supported almost wholly by local taxation, it 
appears that the kindergarten has a legal foothold in all 
but eleven states. These are Delaware, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and North Dakota. 

The momentum which the kindergarten gained in the 
last decade of the century is indicated in part by the 
increased number of state normal schools which added 
kindergarten departments during that period. Although 
the exact number cannot be determined, it is known that 
a large number did so. Among these were Bridgewater 
and North Adams among the Massachusetts normal 
schools ; the Providence Normal School in Rhode Island ; 
Albany, Buffalo, Plattsburg, and Cortland, among the 
normal schools of New York; Slippery Rock and Cali- 
fornia among those of Pennsylvania; Mt. Pleasant and 
Marquette among these of Michigan ; Chico, Los Angeles, 
and San Jose, among those of California; Greely, in 
Colorado ; St. Cloud and Mankato among those in Min- 
nesota; Milwaukee and River Falls in Wisconsin; 
and those at Trenton, New Jersey, Peru, Nebraska, and 
Salt Lake City, Utah. Kindergarten departments have 
since been added to the normal schools at Normal, 111. ; at 
Cedar Falls, Iowa ; at Natchitoches, La. ; at Kalamazoo, 



200 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Mich. ; at Duluth, Minn. ; at Kirks ville, Mo. ; at Lock 
Haven, Pa. ; at Farmville, Va. ; Stevens Point and Superior, 
Wis. ; and at the three newly established normal schools 
in Oklahoma. This list, known to be incomplete, in- 
cluded twenty-one states and not less than fifty institu- 
tions. What may not be hoped for from the influence 
of these institutions for the cause of the kindergarten and 
of educational progress? The kindergartners belonging 
to this class show an energy and an alertness as one meets 
them at I. K. U. gatherings, that testifies to their influence 
in their own localities, and promises much for the future 
of kindergarten training. Most of them are relatively 
young, and have not yet gained a national reputation, 
but from among them will come some of the future leaders 
of the movement. 

The student of kindergarten history cannot fail to be 
impressed by the increasing number of institutions for 
higher education, not supported by state funds, that are 
adding kindergarten departments. While the claim to the 
title of college or university may be somewhat doubtful 
in the case of a few, the list of such institutions given by 
Miss Anderson contains several of national reputation. 
It is as follows : Winthrop Normal and Industrial College, 
Rock Hill, S.C. ; Stetson University, Deland, Fla. ; Drake 
University, Des Moines, la. ; Friends University, Wichita, 
Kansas, and Campbell University, Holton, Kansas; Kee 
Mar College, Hagarstown, Md. ; Alma College, Alma, 
Mich. ; Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska ; Adelphi 
College, and Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y. ; Columbia 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 20I 

University, N.Y. ; the University of Chicago; Latter 
Day Saints University, Salt Lake City, Utah; Stout 
Manual Training School, Menomonie, Wis.; Epworth 
University, Oklahoma City, Okla. ; Valparaiso College 
and Northern Indiana Normal School, Valparaiso, Ind. ; 
and Temple College, Philadelphia, Pa. 

In addition to the departments for kindergarten train- 
ing in these institutions and in the state normal schools 
already mentioned, there are not less than one hundred 
training schools that are either private or supported by 
cities or associations. This increase in the number of 
training schools, and the growing necessity for . kinder- 
garten supervision in the larger cities, has given rise to a 
new need in the kindergarten world, — the need for 
adequate training for the kindergarten training teachers 
and supervisors. This need is being admirably met at 
the present time at Teachers College. The courses of 
instruction offered by this institution are such as to ac- 
quaint the would-be leader with the theory and practice 
of the kindergarten in its relation to the whole of educa- 
tion, and to familiarize her with the larger problems of 
kindergarten training and supervision. 

The growing appreciation of the kindergarten as a part 
of the state educational system was further shown during 
the last decade of the century by the establishment of 
kindergartens in state homes for dependent and neglected 
children, and in institutions for the defective classes — 
the blind, deaf, and feeble-minded. A beginning had 
been made in that direction before 1890, but a beginning 



202 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

only. The story of dependent and neglected childhood 
and its care and education is both sad and long. There 
are in the United States at the present time over six hundred 
institutions, public and private, for such children, which 
in 1890 enrolled 65,000 children. How many of these were 
of kindergarten age no one can tell, but doubtless a goodly 
number. State provision has been made in a number 
of instances, either in the form of state homes, county 
homes, or support in private homes or institutions. When 
such institutions are near public schools the older children 
attend these, but the children of kindergarten age cannot 
easily do so unless the distance is short. The need of a 
kindergarten in the building thus becomes apparent. 
Eleven states have made provision for homeless children 
in state homes, and three in county homes, and in a number 
of these kindergartens have been established. The first 
of the state homes to be built was that at Coldwater, 
Michigan, in 1885. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Rhode 
Island made a similar provision the same year, and Kansas, 
Colorado, and Texas did so soon after. The other states 
having such institutions are Nebraska, Montana, Nevada, 
and Iowa. A kindergarten was connected with the Michi- 
gan institution almost from the beginning, and with the 
institutions in Wisconsin and Minnesota soon after their 
opening. No statistics concerning the number of kinder- 
gartens in such homes have ever been gathered. Miss 
Anderson gives but twenty, though this is known to be far 
too small. The excellent results obtained in the insti- 
tutions where kindergartens have been adopted cannot 
but increase their number in the near future. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 203 

The value of the kindergarten for defective children had 
been realized before the last decade of the century, but 
its general introduction into institutions for the deaf, 
blind, and feeble-minded belongs to the decade in question. 
Such introduction is interwoven with the history of the 
efforts to instruct these different classes of defectives. 
In the earlier years children were not admitted to the 
schools for the deaf until the period for which the kinder- 
garten is intended was over. When this age was lowered, 
as it has been in recent years, the kindergarten began to 
be considered, and according to Mr. Edward E. Allen, 
in Butler's "Education in the United States," "kinder- 
garten methods have been made use of more and more, 
although no true kindergarten can be conducted in schools 
where language comes so late and so hard, where even 
natural signs are arbitrarily interdicted, and where there 
can be no music. But the occupations and games are 
widely applicable, and are universally used." In 1901 
there were one hundred eighteen institutions for teach- 
ing the deaf, according to Dexter's "History of Edu- 
cation in the United States." Of the fifty-seven state 
institutions, thirty had kindergartens. With the tendency 
to substitute oral instruction for instruction in the sign 
language, and day schools for the large institutions, the 
kindergarten will become still more general. Now that 
kindergarten departments have been added to so many 
institutions pupils are urged to enter at an earlier age. 

In the institutions for the blind also, the kindergarten 
has added much to the children's enjoyment and profit. 



204 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Here, too, the age at which children are admitted has been 
lowered in recent years. Hence kindergartens have been 
established, and they are proving of the greatest benefit. 
On this point Mr. Allen says : " Children with good sight 
and hearing have got along without kindergarten train- 
ing and so have blind children, but of all the useful means 
of reaching and developing the average blind child, none 
is so effective as a properly conducted kindergarten. . It 
is not easy to overestimate the importance of hearing 
in giving children language and all that this means ; song 
and the joy it brings and the deep feeling it inspires. 
The practical knowledge of things comes to the blind 
through the hand, their fingers being veritable projections 
of the brain. Thus must not only their hands be trained 
to sensitiveness of touch, but to be strong and supple, so 
that they may indeed be dextrous ; for as their hands are, 
so are their brains. The kindergarten cultivates ear and 
heart and hand and brain as nothing else does. Even 
color is not wholly omitted. Kindergartens for the blind 
may be true kindergartens in every sense of the word. 
A kindergartner of fully sensed children would miss only 
the brightness coming from the untrammeled ability 
to run and play and the absence of all that sight brings. 
The kindergartens for the blind have as their end and 
aim this very rousing of children, and the putting them in 
touch with their surroundings." As Mr. Allen is super- 
intendent of the Pennsylvania State Institution for the 
Blind, he knows whereof he speaks. How many of the 
thirty-nine institutions for the blind have kindergartens, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 205 

could not be ascertained. Mr. Dexter says that "the 
kindergarten is an almost universal part of such institu- 
tions and that no other method of education is so effective 
as the Froebelian." He adds that the games and occu- 
pations seem to meet exactly the needs of the coordinations 
between the senses still active and that the pupils seem to 
miss but little that the perfect child gains. 

To no class of defectives has the kindergarten been more 
of a boon than to the feeble-minded. The story of those 
lacking in mental capacity is a sad one, and provision for 
their care and such development as is possible to them is still 
in its infancy. The present thought concerning the educa- 
tion of the blind and the deaf, particularly the latter, is that 
segregation in large institutions apart from normally con- 
stituted companions is not the best method of education. 
With respect to the feeble-minded, on the other hand, it is 
becoming more and more evident that institutional life 
is the only safe and sensible life. In the existing thirty- 
two institutions for the feeble-minded, in 1901, kinder- 
garten instruction plays an important part. " The normal 
child does not need to be taught every step," says Mr. 
Allen again. "His powers of attention, his will, his desire, 
his own originality, enable him to fill the gaps in his 
instruction from his own daily experiences. In fact he 
learns more out of school than in. On the contrary the 
feeble-minded child has to be taught each step, hence his 
education is extremely slow. The simple occupations 
of the kindergarten fit the child of from eight to twelve 
years of age as they do bright children of four or five, 



206 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

The teacher devises all means of busy work for them, 
using coarse material. No instruction is in more general 
use or is more helpful to the children than that of the 
kindergarten. After this their education continues on 
a very elementary plane beyond which it is impossible 
for them to go." 

One of the most interesting developments of the decade 
along kindergarten lines was the introduction of the kinder- 
garten into the government Indian schools, — the result 
of Professor W. N. Hailman's appointment to the super- 
intendency of these schools in 1894. The Indian schools 
under governmental control are of four classes. To the 
first class belong the day schools, one hundred forty-three 
in number, in 1900. These are held in Indian villages 
or near encampments. They are ungraded in character, 
and are usually taught by a man and his wife. One of 
the chief purposes of these schools is to teach better modes 
of living as well as the rudiments of the school arts. To 
the second class belong the Reservation Boarding Schools, 
numbering seventy-five. These are graded schools partly 
industrial in character, maintained on the reservations. 
It is in these that the kindergartens have been introduced 
to the number of forty. Of these Professor Hailman 
says in Butler's " Education in the United States " : "The 
experiment (of introducing kindergartens) proved emi- 
nently successful. The children entered into the work 
and games with zest and intelligence. Their traditional 
shyness and reticence yielded naturally and readily to 
their objective interest in the exercises. They acquired 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 207 

the English idiom with much ease and learned to express 
their ideas fully and with eagerness. Moreover, the use 
of the kindergarten methods and of kindergarten materials 
has entered the primary classes with similar good results. 
The children spend from one and one half to two hours 
each day in these kindergartens." In commenting upon 
this work in 1897, The Kindergarten Review said: "In the 
Indian schools four years ago there was not a single kinder- 
garten. Now there are over forty, and the primary work 
is thoroughly vitalized with the spirit of Froebel." 

To still another class — the highest — belong the 
Industrial Training Schools, ten in number. This list 
includes the school at Carlisle, Pa., which enrolls eight 
hundred students, Haskell Institute, at Lawrence, Kan., 
and several other institutions of high rank. To three 
of these a normal department has been added to train 
Indian young men and women for the work of teaching. 
The normal courses in these institutions correspond fairly 
to the courses of other normal schools. At Haskell 
Institute those who have completed the normal course 
are given the opportunity of devoting an additional year 
to kindergarten training under the director of the kinder- 
gartner of the institution. 

Considering what has been accomplished in these dif- 
ferent directions toward the introduction of the kinder- 
garten into the school system, there seems no good reason 
for the discouragement that overzealous kindergartners 
occasionally feel, nor does there seem to be any immediate 
danger that "the kindergarten will have to go," as Polly 



208 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Oliver said of the boarders, — a prophecy sometimes 
expressed by its critics. Instead, according to present 
indications, the school system a few years hence may be 
voicing the sentiment expressed by a normal school presi- 
dent who viewed the increasing number, of applicants for 
the kindergarten course with something like alarm, re- 
marking, "If this keeps on, the rest of the school will soon 
be little more than an annex to the kindergarten depart- 
ment." But "new occasions bring new duties," and the 
twentieth century is bringing problems of its own for the 
twentieth-century kindergartners to solve. The reorgan- 
ization of kindergarten thought and procedure that has 
hardly more than begun will tax the insight of the wisest 
before it is completed. The effect of the kindergarten 
upon the school and of current educational thought upon 
the kindergarten have not yet been clearly perceived or 
stated because the process is not yet completed. Super- 
intendent C. B. Gilbert considered the introduction of 
the kindergarten into the public schools "the greatest 
step in the educational history of the country, with the 
exception of the founding of normal schools." But the 
story of the kindergarten in the school is but partially 
told with the recital of its introduction. The concluding 
chapters of the story are those that relate to its effect upon 
the school itself, and the reaction of the school upon its 
own thought and procedure. These are the topics that 
will be discussed in the following pages. 



CHAPTER XI 

Kindergarten Influence in Elementary Education 

The kindergarten has been one of the vital influences 
in American education. Its influence has been exerted 
along many different lines and upon many different groups 
of people. It forms a happy memory in the lives of the 
three million or more children who have participated 
in its procedure since the first kindergarten was opened 
in America. It has interpreted life from a higher stand- 
point to the twenty-five thousand or more young women 
who have taken courses in kindergarten training. It 
has aided the thousands of mothers who have made a 
study of its principles in meeting the daily problems of 
the home. It has enabled the Sunday school teachers of 
the land to organize the religious instruction of little 
children upon a more fundamental basis. It has given 
teachers of every grade a new insight into the educational 
process, and has taught them to direct the development 
of their pupils with more wisdom than before. That the 
attitude of the world toward childhood has been revolu- 
tionized during the present generation, that motherhood 
has taken on a new and higher significance, and that 
primary education has been transformed in recent years 
largely as a result of kindergarten influence are facts so 
p 209 



210 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

thoroughly recognized as to need but a passing mention. 
In enriching the lives of the children who have participated 
in kindergarten procedure, in interpreting the significance 
of motherhood anew to the women of the land, and in 
setting a new and different standard for the teacher, the 
kindergarten has rendered an invaluable service. As 
the value of its influence is recognized, the extension of 
the kindergarten has become one of the features of educa- 
tional progress. 

Great as the value of the kindergarten may be to the 
children who participate in its exercises, its greatest 
service to education cannot be rendered by the mere 
addition of kindergartens to the graded school system. 
If the principles upon which kindergarten practice is 
based are valid, they must be valid not alone for the stage 
of development which the kindergarten covers but also 
for the other stages as well. The powers awakened 
during the kindergarten years need progressive and 
continuous exercise to reach the development of which 
they are capable, and unless the work that follows is 
based upon the same general principles the development 
is arrested. The fruit of the kindergarten tree needs a 
longer time to ripen than that afforded by the kinder- 
garten years alone. The transformation that the work 
of the primary grades has undergone in recent years bears 
testimony to the recognition of these facts. The progress 
of the kindergarten movement is measured in part by the 
increasing number of kindergartens. It is measured no 
less by the increasing application of its principles to grade 



INFLUENCE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 211 

work. The multiplication of kindergartens is relatively 
a simple matter. The reorganization of the elementary 
school has been a task of far greater complexity. The 
kindergarten embodied a new ideal of education; it 
implied a different attitude toward childhood; it utilized 
for the child's development means other than the tra- 
ditional ones ; it employed different methods of procedure. 
The application of kindergarten principles to primary 
school practice meant nothing less, therefore, than the 
reorganization of the school, — the reconstruction of its 
ideals, the enrichment of its curriculum, the adoption 
of new and different methods. Since the kindergarten 
embodied the principles of the new educational phi- 
losophy, it alone would in great measure have effected the 
transformation of the school. But at the time when its 
influence began to be felt other forces were at work in 
American life — forces which created other movements 
destined to play a part in the transformation of American 
education. These movements differed in origin, aim, 
and scope, but all reenforced the influence exerted by the 
kindergarten and hastened the transformation which it 
would have effected. The modern primary school is 
the complex product of these many influences. 

While the present procedure of the primary schools bears 
the stamp of the kindergarten too unmistakably to leave 
one in doubt as to the source from which the transforming 
influence has come, other influences have played their 
part and have left their impress. Of this the art and 
manual training movement, which next to the kindergarten 



212 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

has been the strongest influence in the transformation 
of the school, is an illustration. The child study move- 
ment and the Herbartian movement of a later date are 
other examples of movements that have influenced the 
aims and methods of elementary education and left their 
mark upon school work. Any discussion of kindergarten 
influence that does not recognize these other movements 
and their reciprocal influence upon the kindergarten and 
upon each other must therefore be inadequate. To 
comprehend the primary school of the present it is neces- 
sary to glance briefly at its past, and at the movements 
that have played a part in its transformation. 

The primary school, as that term is now understood, 
has been in existence but little more than forty years. 
The system of grading that created it did not come into 
general use until after the Civil War. The traditional 
curriculum of the Three R's with which' it began was 
gradually modified by the adoption of new subjects, and 
as early as the seventies it showed signs of progress. 
Object lessons had become general as a result of Pes- 
talozzian influence, emanating from the Oswego Normal 
School. In 1870 drawing had been introduced into the 
schools of Boston. This was the indirect result of the 
London and Paris expositions in 185 1 and 1867, which 
had shown the value of art instruction as an educational 
factor. Although these additions had been made in the 
more progressive communities, formal instruction was the 
rule and the repression of childish activity the established 
form of procedure. The word method of teaching reading 



INFLUENCE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 213 

had, it is true, supplanted the time-honored drill in the 
A, B, C's, but with few exceptions the methods of instruc- 
tion had not yet been touched by the new spirit. The 
musical instruction, for which such books as "Loomis's 
First Steps" furnished the basis, was formal in the extreme, 
and the rote song was unrecognized. The instruction 
in drawing was based upon geometrical principles, and 
had no foundation in children's native interests. Form 
study did not become the basis for art instruction until 
1880, and not until much later did color work become a 
recognized feature. The free expression of the children's 
ideas by means of clay modeling, paper cutting, or paint- 
ing was unknown in school work. The need of physical 
activity in the form of play and games and the value of 
contact with nature were also unrecognized. The teachers 
having the least training and experience were placed in 
charge of the youngest children and paid the lowest 
salaries. Such was the primary school in the early seven- 
ties, when the kindergarten came. 

As has been stated, the changes that have taken place 
in elementary education during the past thirty or more 
years have been the result of many different influences. 
These influences may be grouped into two periods, — 
the first beginning at about the time of the Philadelphia 
Exposition, and continuing until about the time of the 
exposition at Chicago; and the second beginning with 
that event and continuing until the present time. The 
movements exerting the greatest influence during the 
first of these periods were the kindergarten movement, 



214 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

the art and manual training movement, and the nature 
study movement. These movements continued their 
influence during the second period, but they were reen- 
forced by the new psychology, child study, and Herbar- 
tianism. The Philadelphia Exposition was a great stimu- 
lus to art education. As a result "an immediate wave 
of art enthusiasm spread over the country, " and art 
instruction became a part of the school curriculum in 
every progressive community. The kindergarten move- 
ment also felt the stimulus of .the exposition. In 1870 
there were but ten kindergartens in the United States. 
In 1880 the number had increased to four hundred. In 
spite of the fact that with the exception of those in St. 
Louis these kindergartens were all private or charitable, 
they exerted an influence upon the school system of many 
a city, even upon those that did not adopt them as a part 
of the public school system later. 

The nature study movement had a different origin. 
The introduction of science into the colleges and uni- 
versities had shown the necessity for cultivating the 
children's powers of observation during the early years; 
hence courses in nature study for the grades were advo- 
cated and attempted. The new interest in literature 
called also for the beginning of literary instruction in the 
elementary school, and hence the story began to receive 
recognition as an educational instrument. The influences 
that combined to reconstruct elementary education thus 
came from three different sources: from the industrial 
world, which demanded art instruction as a preparation 



INFLUENCE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 215 

for industrial life; from the colleges, which insisted 
that the proper intellectual habits should be formed 
and formed early; and from the educational reformers, 
who proclaimed the doctrines of Pestalozzi and Froebel 
as a means of awakening the people to a realization of 
education as something more than instruction in the 
traditional school arts. 

Since it took time for the new influences to make them- 
selves felt, the breaking up of the old regime did not become 
general until the decade between 1880 and 1890. That 
decade may therefore be called the decade of experiment 
and transition. To the uninitiated it was a decade of 
confusion. The addition of new subjects meant either 
the displacing of established ones or the overcrowding 
of the program, — at least a disturbing of the established 
order. The new subjects called also for the use of new 
and unfamiliar methods, — another element of uncer- 
tainty. Since teachers and even superintendents did 
not always understand the purposes of the new subjects, 
their relation to the traditional ones, and the methods to 
be used in presenting them, it is not strange that the results 
should have been unsatisfactory many times, and that 
discontent should have been rife, both in the teaching 
ranks and in the community. In course of time an adjust- 
ment to the new conditions was effected. The ideals that 
called for new subjects and new methods were more 
clearly apprehended and a new unity was worked out, 
both in curriculum and methods. The curriculum of 
the present has an organic unity of its own, based upon 



2l6 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

the experiences, the activities, and the interests of children 
in the different stages of development, but the school in 
which such a curriculum obtains is separated from the 
school of the eighties by an immeasurable distance. 
The progress made since that time is due to the kinder- 
garten and to the movements that characterized the decade 
between 1890 and 1900, — the new psychology, child 
study, and Herbartianism. The effect of these will be 
touched upon later. There have been three stages, 
therefore, in the evolution of the modern primary school, 
— the first, in which the old ideals prevailed ; the second, 
in which a transition from the old ideals and methods 
to the new was in progress; and the third, in which the 
new determine both curriculum and method. But since 
progress has not been equally uniform in all sections of 
the country, schools may be found representing each of 
these stages. Some still embody the old ideals and have 
not, therefore, progressed beyond the first stage; others, 
the great majority, in fact, have accepted the new ideals 
in theory, but are still struggling with the problems of 
their application; still others, relatively few in number 
but constantly increasing, have satisfactorily in practice 
worked out the new ideals. 

The knowledge of educational conditions thus outlined 
is necessary as a background for the study of kindergarten 
influence and progress. It is not difficult to see how the 
drawing, manual training, or other movements have 
influenced the character and methods of the school. 
When the adoption of a new subject was decided upon its 



INFLUENCE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 217 

adaptation to the several grades was carefully considered, 
the teachers were given instruction in the methods to be 
employed, and adequate supervision was provided to 
meet the problems of administration. In the case of the 
kindergarten it was very different. When kindergartens 
were added to the school system, a supervisor was engaged 
in the larger cities, it is true, but her duties seldom included 
instruction to the grade teachers in the methods of apply- 
ing kindergarten principles to their particular work. 
In fact, so little direct effort was made to bring kinder- 
garten influence to bear upon school work that one may 
well ask, What means did the kindergarten adopt to 
affect school procedure so vitally? The introduction 
of drawing, music, manual training, and physical exercise 
into the school curriculum lessened the apparent differences 
between the kindergarten and the school, but did not 
necessarily carry with it the spirit and method of the kinder- 
garten, nor did it insure the attitude towards childhood 
for which the kindergarten stands. The primary teacher 
of the present has absorbed the spirit of the kindergarten 
by observation and training, though she may be uncon- 
scious of that fact. The approval which the kindergarten 
received compelled the teacher of the early day, steeped 
in the formalism that characterized the school work of 
that time, to acquaint herself with kindergarten procedure, 
and as far as possible to adopt its spirit and method. 
This was no easy task. Where kindergartens existed 
teachers diligently visited them; when they did not exist 
the teachers' only resource was the available literature 



2l8 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

of the subject or attendance at some of the summer schools, 
such as those conducted by Colonel Parker at the Cook 
County Normal School, or W. N. Hailman at La Porte, 
Indiana, that made a specialty of the kindergarten and 
its principles. While the study of kindergarten theory 
did much to produce the change in attitude, the main 
source of inspiration was the kindergarten itself. The 
primary teacher who visited a kindergarten could not 
fail to be impressed by the kindergartner's attitude toward 
her children, — by her cooperation with them in the 
spirit of comradeship and by her sympathetic insight into 
their interests and needs. She was impressed no less by 
the children's attitude toward their work, by the spon- 
taneity of their interest, and by their delight in the use of 
the bright- colored material. The games were a revela- 
tion to her, since they showed that there could be freedom 
without disorder; the interest which the children took 
in the kindergarten songs made her own drill on scales 
and intervals seem little better than drudgery; and the 
attractiveness of the kindergarten room gave her helpful 
suggestions concerning the value of beauty as a factor in 
education. In short, recognizing that there was possible 
an order of things very different from that to which she 
was accustomed, she determined to profit by the lesson. 
If kindergarten procedure could be made so interesting, 
why not school procedure as well? Why, she asked, 
should there not be pictures upon the walls and plants 
in the windows, in the primary room as well as in the 
kindergarten? Why should the kindergarten children 



INFLUENCE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 219 

have bright-colored material and the primary children 
none ? Why could not the songs and many of the games 
used in the kindergarten be used also in the primary 
department? The educational leaders were beginning 
to ask the same questions, and to urge the utilization of 
childish activity in the primary grades, but no arguments 
were half so convincing as the example of the kindergarten 
itself. As a result the characteristic features of the kinder- 
garten were to a greater or less degree adopted by the 
school. Exercises with kindergarten material became 
common, and kindergarten songs and games were incor- 
porated into the procedure of the primary school. Since 
the work in drawing was not based upon form study until 
1880, and color exercises formed no part of that work 
until many years after, the kindergarten material was a 
revelation to the teachers, and the gift and occupation 
exercises gave to many the first suggestions concerning 
instruction in form and color. The success of the con- 
structive exercises carried on in the kindergarten converted 
many to the value and feasibility of manual training also. 
The expense involved in the introduction of drawing and 
manual training as such had delayed that introduction in 
many instances; but the success of the exercises of a 
kindergarten character, which involved but little expense, 
not only familiarized the teachers with the purposes and 
methods of these subjects, but also prepared the public 
for their acceptance. Where drawing and manual train- 
ing had been introduced the efforts toward the adoption 
of kindergarten principles strengthened the work already 



220 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

undertaken. Where they had not, the attempts along 
kindergarten lines hastened such introduction. The 
children's interest in doing was in such marked contrast 
with their interest in mere learning — by the customary 
methods at least — that teachers and school boards 
could not fail to see that a new educational force had been 
discovered and a new vein of childish interest struck. 

It was along such practical lines as these that the in- 
fluence of the kindergarten upon the primary school was 
first felt. It is a question whether the so-called applica- 
tion of kindergarten principles to the work of the grades 
meant much more to the average teacher, during the 
decade between 1880 and 1890, than the adoption by the 
school of the external features of kindergarten procedure. 
But the mere adoption of these features led to a deeper 
study of Froebelian doctrine, and this in turn to an insight 
that resulted in better things. The fact that the kinder- 
garten could obtain results in the line of art expression 
that could not be obtained by any other methods had 
led the advocates of art instruction as early as 1880 to 
reconstruct the system of art education on a basis Froe- 
belian to the core. The result was the Prang System of 
Art Education. The Prang System has been one of the 
great agencies of educational reform and the most effective 
ally of the kindergarten in placing the work of the school 
upon an active instead of a receptive basis. Wherever 
the Prang System is used the principles of Froebel are 
disseminated. The success of the system is due in no 
small degree to its espousal of kindergarten principles. 



INFLUENCE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 221 

It has become one of the great agencies for the spread 
of the kindergarten gospel. 

But the art instruction was not the only line of work 
that was reorganized in whole or in part as a result of 
a growing insight into kindergarten principles. The 
kindergarten song book rendered an important service 
in carrying kindergarten influence into the school, as has 
been stated. Since it was the agency by means of which 
kindergarten games found their way into the primary 
schoolroom, the song book did as much as the kinder- 
garten material to introduce the principle of activity into 
primary education. But acquainting primary teachers 
with kindergarten games was but a part of the service 
the song book rendered. It showed a new conception 
of the function of music in a child's development, and of 
the methods by which that development should be secured. 
The kindergartner maintained that this development de- 
pended upon the cultivation of musical feeling, and that 
this made the hearing of good music, adapted to the child's 
comprehension, indispensable. This practically created 
the child's song and brought the rote song into use as 
an educational instrument. She maintained further that 
the appreciation of rhythmic exercises and participation 
in them is essential, and that such exercises should there- 
fore have a place in the kindergarten program. She 
further insisted that opportunity for the interpretation of 
music should also be given, and that there should eventually 
be creative expression in music, as there is such expression 
in other lines. But if these ideas were to obtain in the 



222 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

music teaching of the grades, a new system of ideals and 
methods was needed. The principles in question were 
gradually recognized, and a reorganization of the music 
teaching in the grades was undertaken. Such a recon- 
struction was hardly more than conceived of, however, 
during the decade in question; in fact, it has been but 
partially effected even yet. Because the kindergarten 
song book suggested such a reconstruction, and introduced 
games and dramatizations into the grades, it has been 
one of the main agencies for the spread of kindergarten 
influence. Wherever it has gone it has carried the kinder- 
garten spirit — the sympathetic interpretation of child- 
hood, the love of nature, and respect for human activity, 
whatever its form. 

The use of the kindergarten game in the primary 
school led to the reorganization of another line of work 
also. The physical needs of school children had received 
but scant consideration at the hands of school authorities ; 
but about the middle of the decade under consideration, 
gymnastic exercises were introduced into the schools of 
all the larger cities. But the spirit with which the children 
entered into the games, in marked contrast with the 
spirit manifested in the formal exercises, showed plainly 
that this branch of school work had not yet been placed 
upon a proper foundation. That there was needed a 
course of physical training in which games appropriate 
to the different grades should have a place was readily 
seen. Such a course was not worked out during the decade 
in question. Like the needed reorganization in musical 



INFLUENCE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 223 

lines, it is hardly worked out even yet, but much thought 
has been given to it in recent years. 

The reorganization of the work in physical training 

was not the only service, however, of the kindergarten 

game to the primary school. The dramatic instinct, 

so strong in childhood, had been refused recognition 

along with other instincts in the school of the early days. 

The kindergarten recognized and utilized these instincts 

and this was one of the reasons for its appeal to childish 

interest. It gave opportunity for picture making and 

building, in the use of the gifts and occupations. It found 

occasion for the exercise of the dramatic instinct in the 

dramatization of human and animal activities. The 

dramatic game is not only an instrument of instruction 

peculiarly adapted to childish needs, but it is a means of 

expression of the greatest value. Like drawing, modeling, 

or building, it is a means of determining the nature of the 

child's mental images. The primary teacher of the early 

day could not fail to see the significance of dramatic and 

imitative play and its value for her own work, but the 

adoption of such play was at first impossible. To carry 

out dramatic games necessitated her becoming like the 

kindergartner, a jumping frog, a galloping horse, or a 

flying bird or butterfly, as occasion demanded, and from 

this a false dignity shrank. If the kindergartner had 

taught the primary teacher no other lesson than that one 

must become a child with the children to succeed with 

them, she would have rendered the school an invaluable 

service. The teacher had stood aloof from the children, 



224 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

a being apparently of a different order, and occupying 
a different plane. The kindergartner taught her to live 
with the children on their own level, yet above it. The 
primary teacher of the present has learned the lesson, 
and her success is measured by her approach to the kinder- 
garten type. The principle of dramatic expression, in- 
troduced into the school through the avenue of the kinder- 
garten game, has had most important results in the 
primary grades. It has given new life and interest to 
nature work; it has been the principal means by which 
a knowledge of the trade world has been obtained, and 
through the dramatization of stories it has vitalized 
children's interest in literature and history. Dramatic 
representation has demonstrated from a new standpoint 
what art and manual training had demonstrated from 
another, — that activity is the avenue to children's inter- 
est, and the surest means to their development. 

In the line of nature study, too, the kindergarten has 
suggested new ideals and methods to the primary school. 
As stated elsewhere, the nature study movement in the 
elementary school was the indirect result of the introduc- 
tion of scientific courses into the colleges and universities. 
The attempt to teach science to college students revealed 
a fundamental defect in the educational system. Students 
were utterly lacking in the knowledge that must form the 
basis for all scientific study, — the knowledge gained 
from direct observation. They had, moreover, no con- 
ception of scientific method, and no power of scientific 
reasoning. The introduction of the inductive sciences 



INFLUENCE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 225 

into the high schools of the country was the immediate 
result. The high schools, however, declared themselves 
unable to meet the demand this laid upon them by the 
higher institutions unless a foundation in the form of nature 
study was laid in the elementary schools. The stimula- 
tion from the higher institutions to science teaching in 
the grades was invaluable, but the organization of a suit- 
able course of nature study was a difficult matter. The 
teachers of the period were wholly lacking in scientific 
knowledge, material adapted to schoolroom conditions 
was difficult to obtain, and the purposes of the work were 
but dimly perceived. The movement therefore pursued 
an uncertain course during the early years. The ad- 
vocates of art teaching, who had encountered similar 
difficulties in advancing the cause of art education, had 
solved their difficulties by rejecting a course organized 
from the higher grades downward, and had constructed 
a new course, as has been stated, which began with the 
fundamental interests and capabilities of the youngest 
children, and proceeded upwards. The necessity for 
a similar reconstruction in the nature work was forced 
upon the friends of that movement, and it was in this 
direction that the kindergarten rendered valuable service. 
Although the kindergarten did not solve all the diffi- 
culties of the struggling nature study movement, it ex- 
ercised an appreciable influence upon the selection of 
subject-matter and upon the methods of work. This 
influence would doubtless have been more pronounced 
had the kindergarten in the United States been faithful 

Q 



226 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

to the ideals of its founder. Gardening, nature excur- 
sions, and other lines of nature work formed an organic 
part of the curriculum in Froebel's world-famed school 
at Keilhau ; and every child took part in the garden work 
that formed a feature of the first kindergarten at Blanken- 
burg. Miss Elizabeth Harrison said, on her return from 
a tour in Europe a few years ago, "Nowhere in the land 
of Froebel did I find a kindergarten without its little plot 
of ground where the children put their own seedlings,' 
tended their own plants, plucked their own blossoms, 
and in the autumn gathered and stored their own multi- 
plied seeds." Gardening for the primary grades, if not for 
the whole school, should have been the result of kinder- 
garten influence and example. School gardens form an 
organic part of the school work in a few cities, but these 
are the product of the settlement or the Outdoor Art 
Association rather than of the kindergarten. 

In spite of its failure to realize its own ideals, however, 
the kindergarten has contributed much that is of value 
along nature study lines. It has given the kindergarten 
children the right attitude toward nature. It has taught 
them to consider plants and animals as friends and helpers, 
having ways of their own that can only be learned by 
observation. It has led them to think of the domestic 
animals as needed helpers, deserving of care and considera- 
tion. It has given thousands of children an acquaintance 
with animal life by the care of pets, such as squirrels, 
rabbits, or doves, which can be kept in or near the kinder- 
garten room. By means of the aquarium and terrarium 



INFLUENCE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 227 

it has familiarized them with the habits of fish, frogs, 
insects, and other lower forms. When one has come to 
recognize the animals of field and forest as governed by 
motives not unlike his own, nature can never be wholly 
uninteresting. The bird building its nest or feeding its 
young, the caterpillar spinning its cocoon, the butterfly 
emerging from its crysalis, the cricket chirping in the 
grass — these, and a thousand other things, have become 
significant to children during recent years. 

The plant world, too, has made its appeal to the child's 
interest. By means of the window box, if the school 
garden is impossible, the children have learned of the 
awakening seed, the slowly forming bud and blossom, 
and the seed, ripening for the next year's round. The 
bud and blossom of springtime, the changing foliage and 
ripening fruit of autumn, and the snow-covered landscape 
of winter have been interpreted and idealized by means 
of song, story, and picture, until the whole realm of nature 
seems to the child a veritable fairyland. The kinder- 
garten and the school have a different function to perform 
in the child's development, but in the nature work at 
least, the school has so completely adopted the aims and 
purposes of the kindergarten that there are no longer 
dividing lines. The primary school journals and the 
song and story books intended for use in the primary 
grades all reflect the spirit and method of the kindergarten 
in its attitude toward nature. The study of nature in 
the grades is successful when the emphasis is placed where 
the kindergarten places it — upon the care and observa- 



228 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

tion of living things, upon functions rather than upon 
structure. The kindergarten and the art work recon- 
structed upon kindergarten principles have given nature 
study the place that it now occupies in the school curricu- 
lum and in the lives of American children. 

Another line of school work that has felt the influence 
of the kindergarten is the story. Although the story was 
the first form of instruction in human history, and story- 
telling has occupied a place at every fireside since the 
world began, the story as a school instrument is a thing 
of the past few years, and story-telling was so rare an art 
among teachers that its possession was a matter of com- 
ment. The place that the story now occupies in primary 
work is due to two influences, that of the kindergarten, 
and that of Herbart and his American exponents. The 
Herbartians, like the advocates of nature study in an 
earlier period, attempted to organize a systematic course 
of instruction in literature for the whole school. In this 
the story told by the teacher was to serve as the founda- 
tion. The kindergarten began as it did in the case of 
nature study and drawing, from the level of the little 
child and worked up, leaving the grades beyond to work 
out their own special problems. The child had had no 
place in literature until the past century, and literature 
had made no conscious provision for the child's literary 
needs. The entrance to the world of fancy — the child's 
own by natural right — was not until recent years gained 
through the door of the schoolroom, and to acquaint 
the child with the best in literature had not been one of 



INFLUENCE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 229 

the recognized aims in the teaching of reading. The 
school which had rejected the child's desire to picture 
and dramatize the world about him as of value for educa- 
tional purposes had failed to recognize no less the educa- 
tional value of the child's love of stories. Here, too, the 
kindergarten took the stone which the builders had re- 
jected and gave it an important place in the new educa- 
tional edifice. The story, in the estimation of the kinder- 
gartner, is the means of interpreting to the child the life 
of which he is a part, and of acquainting him with the 
motives that actuate conduct. Since the child of kinder- 
garten age lives in the realm of the imagination, the story 
that meets his needs must be clothed in the garb of fancy ; 
since action is the first law of being during the early years, 
it must be dramatic; since his unfolding spiritual nature 
craves sustenance, it must contain seed truths to germinate 
and grow into right action; since his power of com- 
prehension is limited, the story must be told instead of 
read. 

The kindergartner's views concerning the story as an 
educational instrument were impressed upon the primary 
teachers of the early days by the successful use of the story 
in the kindergarten; they were spread broadcast by col- 
lections of stories by kindergartners that later found their 
way to the educational market. Story-telling became 
a feature of primary school as well as of kindergarten 
procedure, and the art of story-telling became one of the 
tests of a good primary teacher. When the Herbartian 
movement came somewhat later, the foundation for a 



230 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

course of literature for the grades was already laid. The 
movement to give children a knowledge of the world's 
best literature, resulting from the combined influence of 
Froebel and Herbart, has been of inestimable value to 
American childhood. The supplementary reader and 
the library as an adjunct to the schoolroom are among 
its results. In the use of the story, as in the use of song, 
nature work, or dramatic expression, the line of demarca- 
tion between the up-to-date kindergarten and the up-to- 
date primary department is rapidly disappearing. The 
kindergarten song book has been one means of bringing 
about the unification of the kindergarten and the school; 
the kindergarten story has performed a like service. 

The adoption of the story as a feature of primary school 
work, like the adoption of the other features of kinder- 
garten procedure, was not accomplished at once. That 
kindergarten influence made itself felt in the school at 
first along practical lines has been already stated; such 
influence was deepened, however, by the growing insight 
into the fundamental principles of the Froebelian phi- 
losophy that came with the growth of the movement. 
Certain positive results had been realized from kinder- 
garten influence by the end of the decade from 1880 to 
1890. The spirit and manner of the kindergartner had 
become the accepted standard for the primary teacher, 
because the attitude toward childhood for which the 
kindergarten stands had been accepted as the true attitude. 
The fundamental principle of the kindergarten — that 
of education through activity — had been recognized 



INFLUENCE IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 23I 

as the principle upon which primary teaching should be 
based, since an acquaintance with the kindergarten had 
shown its validity. The external features of the kinder- 
garten — its hand work, its songs and games, its nature 
work and its stories, had been adopted in many schools. 
The method of art education had been radically recon- 
structed as a result of its influence, and a reconstruction 
of the methods of teaching music, nature study, and 
physical training was well under way. The decade 
between 1880 and 1890 was a significant one in the history 
of elementary education because it saw the inauguration 
of many new features in school work. The decade be- 
tween 1890 and 1900 was even more significant, since it 
saw the rise of other movements destined to give more 
fundamental insight into the ends and means of education, 
and thus into the new movements themselves. To under- 
stand the later developments of the kindergarten move- 
ment and the nature of its influence upon the work of 
the grades, it is necessary to glance in some detail at the 
movements in the field of general education that charac- 
terized that decade. 



CHAPTER XII 

. New Tendencies 

The influence of the kindergarten upon the school 
during the decade from 1880 to 1890 had been mainly 
external. The form of school work had been affected 
but the principles underlying the changes of form were 
but partially grasped. The literature of the kindergarten 
had familiarized the public with the conception of educa- 
tion as a process of continuous development, a process 
in which the child's creative activity must play an impor- 
tant part. That conception was illustrated in the kinder- 
garten itself. The adoption by the school of the features 
that characterized the kindergarten was an attempt to 
realize this conception in the grades beyond, but the teacher 
of insight could not fail to see that such adoption alone 
did not accomplish that purpose. The realization of 
that conception in the grades called for something much 
more fundamental, — the reorganization of the school 
work upon a new basis. Such a reorganization was begun 
during the last decade of the century and is still in progress. 
The kindergarten prepared the way for such a reorganiza- 
tion, but could not have effected it without the aid of the 
movements in general education that characterized the 
period, — the new psychology and child study, and in 

232 



NEW TENDENCIES 233 

a lesser degree, Herbartianism. As a result of these 
movements, however, the kindergarten itself was chal- 
lenged both in its theory and in its practice, and as a result 
has been materially modified. To understand the kinder- 
garten situation at the present time, therefore, and the 
changes that are taking place in the curriculum and 
methods of the school, it is necessary to consider briefly 
the movements in question. 

The doctrine of education as a process of development 
had been theoretically accepted long before the decade 
now under consideration, but that doctrine did not be- 
come effective as a reorganizing principle in school work 
until reenforced by other authority than that of the educa- 
tional reformer. The rapid development of the biological 
sciences during the seventies, due to the acceptance of the 
theory of evolution, had given rise to a new interpretation 
of life. According to this interpretation both mind and 
body are the product of the evolutionary processes. A 
study of the lower forms of life, both plant and animal, 
had acquainted the scientist with the fundamental laws 
of life and growth, and the relation between the organism 
and its environment. The work done in these lines made 
a study of the mental life from the standpoint of the natural 
sciences necessary. The "new psychology" evolved 
in the universities of Germany during the seventies in 
response to this need, found its way to the leading insti- 
tutions of America soon after. It was taught at Yale by 
Dr. George T. Ladd, who published the first American 
book of importance on physiological psychology. It was 



234 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

taught at Harvard by Dr. William James and at Johns 
Hopkins by Dr. G. Stanley Hall. Other institutions soon 
followed. The psychological laboratory became a part 
of every well-equipped educational institution, and re- 
searches in psychology were carried on by methods ap- 
proved by the canons of scientific criticism. Since psy- 
chology in its new aspect emphasized the evolution of 
mind, the observation of children followed as a natural 
consequence. Genetic psychology, and in fact the whole 
child study movement, was therefore a logical outcome 
of a psychology based upon natural science methods. 

The new psychology differed from the old or rational 
psychology in attitude, scope, emphasis, and method. Its 
attitude, as stated, was scientific, not philosophic. It ig- 
nored metaphysical problems such as the nature of the self 
and its relation to the universe, and confined itself to a 
study of mind as a reacting mechanism. It placed em- 
phasis upon the study of the stream of consciousness in 
the process of functioning. This called for a study of the 
neural basis of the conscious states. The emphasis thus 
necessarily placed upon the study of the nervous system 
gave rise to the term "physiological psychology" as 
indicating the character of the new science. The fact 
that the method adopted was that which obtained in the 
kindred sciences of biology and physiology, — the method 
of observation and experiment, led to the use of the term 
"experimental" or "empirical." These terms failed 
to indicate the aim of the new psychology however, — 
the discovery of the laws of mental life and growth, and 



NEW TENDENCIES 235 

the principles that underlie its adjustment to environing 
forces. The terms in question gave little or no suggestion 
as to the value of the knowledge which the new psychology 
aimed at as a basis for a new educational structure. 

The knowledge of the mental life which the new psy- 
chology demanded called for an acquaintance with the 
fundamental facts of child life and development, and 
tended in the direction of child observation and study. 
The impulse to child study from the genetic standpoint 
came from Dr. William Preyer of the University of Jena, 
who in 1 88 1 published a book of notes upon the develop- 
ment of his own child, called "Die Seele des Kindes." 
Child study would doubtless have become an important 
phase of psychological study in the United States apart 
from this, however, as a result of the impulse which had 
brought the new psychology into existence. The child 
study movement of the nineties was instituted for practical 
rather than for theoretical reasons, however. The new 
psychology as such was not evolved by the educational 
reformer as an instrument for the reconstruction of educa- 
tion, although its fundamental significance for education 
soon became apparent. The child study movement, on 
the contrary, was born of the desire to find in the knowledge 
of the child's development at different stages, the basis 
for a new educational system. For the conception of 
education so reconstructed the world is indebted to Dr. 
G. Stanley Hall, who may appropriately be called the 
father of the child study movement. In an editorial in 
The Pedagogical Seminary in 1895, Dr. G. Stanley Hall 



236 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

says: " There are two ways of advancing education. 
The first may be subdivided into what for want of better 
terms we may roughly call the administrative and the 
logical, and the second the internal or bio-psychological. 
The first method works on school laws and organizations, 
adjustment between grades, the constitution of teachers' 
societies, and on the logical side draws up courses of study 
with due correlations, and effects reforms by working 
from without inwards. The second method, assuming 
education to be a branch of applied biology and im- 
pressed with the great difference between logical and 
psychological methods, gives prominence to the latter, 
and would work everywhere from within outwards. Our 
predecessors in this favored land gave us good school 
laws, organization and grading which we are improving 
as we are also buildings. Within the past year we have 
taken up the vast problem of revising the curriculum. 
Back of all these and other educational problems, however, 
are the nature and needs of the growing child and youth, 
and the best sign of the times that the present educational 
awakening has struck deep root and that the near future 
will see greater advance than the recent past, is the fact 
that American teachers are slowly realizing that the only 
philosophic and even rational and consistent education 
is ultimately based solely on a knowledge of the growth 
of the body, brain, and soul of the young of the human 
species. The Pedagogical Seminary finds its distinctive 
character and standpoint in striving to aid in the develop- 
ment of this genetic knowledge of childhood as the con- 



NEW TENDENCIES 237 

dition of all educational progress that is real or can be 
lasting." 

The child study movement began during the decade 
between 1880 and 1890, but like the new psychology, 
did not reach its fullest development until the following 
one. The desire for the reconstruction of education which 
brought it into existence shaped the general character 
of the movement. Its advocates, Dr. Hall and his dis- 
ciples, aimed to acquaint the public, particularly parents 
and teachers, with the fundamental facts of child develop- 
ment by means of personal observation on their part of 
the children with whom they came into contact, and to 
lead them to see the nature of an education based upon 
such facts. They sought to secure the cooperation of 
parents and teachers in collecting adequate data con- 
cerning significant aspects of child growth, and by the 
sifting and organizing of the data thus obtained, they 
hoped to obtain a body of principles upon which to base 
a true educational theory. Under the leadership of Dr. 
Hall and others, syllabi containing directions and sug- 
gestions were prepared and sent to interested individuals 
or to societies organized for the furthering of the move- 
ment. The topics selected for observation and study 
covered a wide range. The growth of the child's body 
at different periods as shown by weights and measure- 
ments received considerable attention. Because of the 
interest awakened by the new psychology in the child's 
native impulses and instincts, and by the motor activities 
in general, children's plays and games, their toys and play 



238 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

material, formed one of the most interesting lines of work. 
The drawings of children at different ages received special 
attention for similar reasons. The content of children's 
minds, their use of language, their interests and ideals, 
and their moral and religious conceptions at different 
ages — all these and many other topics were taken up 
for observation and study. The child study work thus 
carried the spirit and method of the new psychology into 
every intelligent home and every up-to-date schoolroom. 
The interest awakened by the child study movement 
was nothing short of remarkable. Child study became 
the principal topic for discussion at teachers' meetings 
and educational gatherings, and the chief subject of inter- 
est in the educational journals. It was accorded a place 
on the program of women's clubs, and became the topic 
for detailed study in parents' associations, some of which 
were organized for the pursuit of such study. In the 
normal schools child study became the avenue of approach 
to the study of psychology and pedagogy. In the summer 
schools no courses were more crowded than the child 
study courses. In the universities child study became 
a recognized phase of the work in psychology. All the 
problems, both of the home and of the school, seemed on 
the way to a happy solution by its means. The wave of 
immediate interest in the subject has passed, but certain 
positive results remain. A body of facts concerning 
child life at different stages has been built up, and although 
no specific formulation of principles for the guidance of 
educational procedure has been made on the basis of these 



NEW TENDENCIES 239 

facts, enough has been done to produce marked effects 
in school work. Child study has given parents and teachers 
a deeper insight into the problems of education, and has 
brought them into sympathy with the newer movements, 
— the kindergarten, drawing and manual training, and 
nature study. It has given the average teacher a new 
attitude toward children, and has done much to cultivate 
professional interest. Many books have been written 
embodying in a manner more or less popular the results 
of the movement, and these have added to its influence. 
The child study movement must be considered one of 
the epoch-making movements in the history of American 
education. 

The third movement to influence education in the 
United States during the decade between 1890 and 1900 
was the Herbartian movement. The character of Ger- 
man pedagogy during the past quarter century has been 
shaped largely by the influence of Herbart, and in view 
of German leadership in education it is not strange that 
this influence should have extended to the United States. 
The significance of Froebel's doctrines first became ap- 
parent through their embodiment in the kindergarten. 
The educational theories of Herbart made their impres- 
sion likewise through their application to school work. 
The centers of Herbartian influence in Germany are the 
universities of Jena, Leipzig, and Halle. The doctrines 
taught in the classroom by Stoy and Rein at Jena and 
by Ziller at Leipzig are applied in the practice schools 
connected with these institutions, and it is by the illustra- 



240 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

tion of Herbartian principles in these schools that American 
educators have been converted to the Herbartian faith. 

Among the exponents of the Herbartian doctrines in 
the United States, Dr. Charles De Garmo and Drs. 
Charles A. and Frank McMurry take high rank. During 
the early nineties these men were all connected with the 
Illinois Normal University at Normal, 111., and that in- 
stitution therefore became one of the principal centers 
from which emanated the influence of Herbart in the 
United States. Not only were the doctrines of Herbart 
taught in the classroom, but they were applied in the 
training school. The curriculum of the training school 
was reorganized on Herbartian principles as far as these 
were compatible with American school work, and the 
methods of the recitation were shaped to meet Herbartian 
demands. The graduates of the school were thus famil- 
iarized with Herbart's doctrines, both in theory and in 
practice. Probably nothing contributed more to the 
spread of these doctrines than the many books written by 
Dr. Charles A. McMurry. The first of these was " General 
Method," published in 1892. This is a brief general 
statement of the doctrines in question. "The Method 
of the Recitation" shows the application of these doctrines 
to the work of the classroom. The adoption of Herbartian 
methods in the schools of the country is due in no small 
degree to the publication of these books and the series 
on "Special Methods," in which the application of Her- 
bartian principles to the different lines of school work is 
shown. 



NEW TENDENCIES 241 

The study of Herbart's doctrines was materially fur- 
thered by the organization of the National Herbart Society 
about the middle of the decade under consideration. This 
society was auxiliary to the National Educational Associa- 
tion, and its members were mainly the active members 
of that organization. The meetings held in connection 
with those of the National Educational Association and 
the Department of Superintendence attracted attention 
because of the strength of their programs and the methods 
of work. The papers prepared for the meetings were 
printed beforehand in the form of "Year Books," and the 
discussion of the papers in question formed the program. 
The publications of this society contain some of the most 
valuable contributions that have been made to American 
educational literature, and no educational library is com- 
plete without them. 

The immediate interest in the doctrines of Herbart has 
waned, like the interest in child study, but the movement 
as a whole has contributed much that is of value to 
American education. The movement did not awaken 
the interest among parents that child study awakened, it 
is true, but its interest and value for the teacher cannot 
be questioned. American educators have never accepted 
the Herbartian doctrines in their entirety; in fact, that 
acceptance has been confined mainly to certain practical 
applications of his doctrines. His psychology has not 
stood the test of modern scholarship; his doctrine of 
apperception, however, is conceded to be one of the most 
important contributions to recent pedagogical science. 



242 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

The Culture Epoch Theory associated with Herbart's 
name has been rejected as the foundation for the American 
school curriculum; but the thought that the curriculum 
of the elementary school should have a character-build- 
ing content has helped to give history, literature, and 
nature study a permanent place in grade work and made 
a return to the curriculum of the "Three R's" forever 
impossible. A school program based upon the Her- 
bartian principle of correlation has been found impracti- 
cable ; but the attempts in that direction have done much 
to emphasize the principle of mental economy and to make 
the curriculum an organic whole instead of a mere collec- 
tion of unrelated subjects. The doctrine of interest 
needed the modification it received at the hands of Ameri- 
can psychologists; but its discussion did much to give 
a more fundamental character to education. The move- 
ment in general reenforced the theory of stages in a child's 
development, although it considered them from a different 
point of view — that of the subject-matter of instruction 
appropriate to each. By its discussion of the essential 
steps in the teaching process, Herbartianism rendered 
a most valuable service to pedagogical science and placed 
classroom instruction upon a new and higher level. The 
doctrine of creative self-activity this movement did not 
recognize, and in this respect it was out of harmony with 
the educational theories in process of formation in Ameri- 
can education as a result of other tendencies. In general, 
however, the Herbartian movement must be considered one 
of the most stimulating influences in American education. 



NEW TENDENCIES 243 

The bearing of these movements upon the kindergarten, 
and upon the application of the principles underlying that 
institution to grade work, cannot yet be wholly determined. 
That Froebel had grasped by intuition and insight the 
great educational truths which psychology has in recent 
years been seeking to establish is admitted by all. It 
is not yet equally recognized, however, that the researches 
of recent years have thrown a flood of light upon many 
truths but dimly perceived or wholly unsuspected in Froe- 
bel's time. That with the advent of this larger knowledge 
defects would be revealed in the system of procedure which 
he formulated was unavoidable. The new psychology 
and child study brought that larger knowledge, and these 
movements could not fail, therefore, to affect the kinder- 
garten, — to establish it more firmly than ever in the con- 
fidence of the people or to impair that confidence. Until 
the new psychology came there had been little or no criti- 
cism. During the eighties and the early nineties kinder- 
garten procedure was considered the ideal which school 
practice should seek to imitate. It was not until about 
the middle of the decade between 1890 and 1900 that 
criticisms of importance began to be heard. The small- 
ness of the kindergarten material was declared to be 
injurious to growing nerves and detrimental to youthful 
eyes. The art teacher began to question the value of the 
customary gift and occupation exercises as a basis for the 
art work of the grades, and the physical training teacher to 
express dissatisfaction with many of the games. All 
these quoted the psychologist as their authority. As the 



244 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

kindergarten had heretofore met with approval only, these 
criticisms were not easy to bear, and they occasioned the 
friends of the movement no little anxiety. They feared 
that the criticisms in question would undermine public 
confidence in their beloved institution and overthrow the 
movement which they had labored so diligently to establish. 
These fears not infrequently blinded them to the whole- 
some nature of the criticisms and to the kindly interest 
of the critics. They could not then see what has become 
apparent since, that the new psychology has been of the 
greatest value to the kindergarten movement, that it was 
needed to interpret the principles of Froebel aright even 
to the kindergartners themselves, and to make possible 
a fundamental application of those principles to grade work. 
The new psychology has made necessary many modifica- 
tions in kindergarten procedure, and will eventually compel 
a reorganization of its theory. The advent of the psy- 
chologist, therefore, marked a turning point in the history 
of the kindergarten movement. That movement could 
never have attained the influence that it now exerts in the 
educational world, however, without the sanction of psy- 
chology and child study. For in spite of the criticism 
made upon certain phases of kindergarten theory and 
practice, the psychologist at no time posed as an opponent 
of the kindergarten as a whole. On the contrary he frankly 
recognized it as the only attempt thus far made to establish 
education upon a psychological basis, and commended 
it as an effort to realize the very ideals that he himself 
was seeking to establish. As a result the friends of the 



NEW TENDENCIES 245 

kindergarten were stimulated to even greater efforts in its 
behalf, and many who had thus far given it but little thought 
were led to give it favorable attention. That education 
is a process of development rather than a process of in- 
struction; that play is the natural means of development 
during the early years; that the child's creative activity 
must be the main factor in his education ; and that his 
present interests and needs rather than the demands of the 
future should determine the material and method to be 
employed, — all these principles underlying kindergarten 
procedure the psychologist approved, not for the kinder- 
garten alone, but for all education. 

The effect of such approval was apparent in the rapid 
extension of the kindergarten movement during the latter 
part of the decade under consideration. As stated else- 
where, in 1890 the kindergarten had secured a legal foot- 
hold in less than half a dozen states; at present kinder- 
gartens can be established at public expense in all but 
eleven of the states and territories of the Union. In 1890, 
five or six of the larger cities and twenty-five or thirty 
smaller ones had adopted the kindergarten as a part of the 
school system; in 1902 public school kindergartens were 
reported in four hundred forty. In 1890 not more than 
six of the state normal schools of the country had established 
kindergarten training departments; at present such de- 
partments have been organized in more than fifty. This 
remarkable extension cannot be attributed wholly to any 
one influence, it is true, but the emphasis placed by the 
new psychology upon kindergarten education as a type of 



246 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

the education that should prevail throughout the grades 
was a factor of no small importance. 

The strengthening of the kindergarten as such in public 
favor reenforced the tendency toward the reorganization 
of primary school work on the basis of kindergarten prin- 
ciples. A difference in attitude toward the type of educa- 
tion which the kindergarten represents was clearly discern- 
ible during the years immediately following the Chicago 
Exposition. The evidences of kindergarten progress 
which the exposition afforded were so unmistakable, 
the approval accorded that institution by the leading 
educators at the Educational Congresses was so marked, 
and the phases of education for which it stands were seen 
to be so clearly in line with the most progressive tendencies 
that even the most skeptical could not fail to be impressed. 
The hesitation that still existed in the minds of some 
concerning the adoption of drawing, constructive work, 
games, and other features that had a kindergarten savor 
gave way to confidence in their value and enthusiasm over 
the results. The new movements that had been struggling 
for recognition and place in the school, — art instruction, 
manual training, games, nature work, etc., now came in 
with a rush, and established phases of grade work were 
either transformed or wholly discontinued. The drill on 
arithmetical tables gave way to measurement of concrete 
things ; the learning of the parts of speech as a foundation 
for language training was replaced by the reproduction of 
stories, and the analysis of nature study material gave 
way to the observation and care of living plants and animals. 



NEW TENDENCIES 247 

During the early period the kindergarten exercises, when 
such were introduced, served as a pleasant diversion in 
the customary school grind. The methods now adopted 
in the regular subjects made these subjects themselves 
interesting. All this indicated that the principles under- 
lying the kindergarten were being grasped in their larger 
sense. The establishment of public playgrounds and the 
organization of vacation schools gave other evidence of that 
fact. 

The changes that were gradually taking place in the 
curriculum and methods of the school indicated a growing 
comprehension of a fundamental truth proclaimed by 
Froebel and sanctioned by modern psychology, — that 
both the matter and the method employed in the different 
grades must originate in the children's present needs and 
interests instead of in the interests and needs of the future. 
In other words, the curriculum must be organized on a 
psychological basis, not as heretofore on a logical one. 
This is the gist of the statement so frequently misunder- 
stood, that education at any stage is a phase of life, not a 
preparation for it. The work of the kindergarten is psy- 
chologically organized ; the increasing tendency to organ- 
ize the work of the school upon the same principle is one 
of the most gratifying evidences of educational progress. 
A few schools have grasped this principle fully and are 
therefore as truly Froebelian as the best kindergartens. 
The majority are still struggling to carry it into operation. 

The reorganization of the school curriculum from the 
standpoint of children's present needs is one evidence of 



248 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

progress; the reorganization of method from the stand- 
point of the child's volitional interest is additional evidence. 
In such a reorganization, too, the kindergarten has led the 
way, although the new psychology has shown it with added 
clearness. The distinctive method of the kindergarten is 
the method of creative self-activity. That which has no 
root in the child's volition the kindergartner considers with- 
out value in his development. The fact that expression 
has become the keynote in primary school method shows 
that this principle has been accepted by the school as the 
foundation principle of method. In art and manual train- 
ing creative self-expression along the line of the children's 
fundamental interests is the constant aim. In language 
originality in the expression of the child's own thought, 
whether by means of words, pictures, or dramatic action, 
is constantly striven for. In nature study the method 
pursued is one in which the child's interest and judgment 
play an important part. A curriculum based on chil- 
dren's present needs, and a method growing out of their 
inherent forms of activity, — these are the fundamental 
characteristics of kindergarten education that are being 
slowly but surely adopted by the schools. Dr. Monroe 
says: "Wherever the emphasis in school work is placed 
upon the activities of the child rather than upon the tech- 
nique of the process of instruction, and whenever develop- 
ment of character and of personality is sought rather than 
mere importation of information and training of intellectual 
ability, there the Froebelian influence is to be recognized." 
The influence of the kindergarten upon the school is 



NEW TENDENCIES 249 

clearly recognizable in still another direction. That every 
child must be educated if social betterment is to be effected 
has long been conceded. But in the estimation of Froebel 
intellectual development as such would not alone prepare 
the child for the place he is to occupy in society. He 
maintained that the school should make the practice of 
the social virtues an organic part of educational procedure. 
The kindergarten is an illustration of this theory, and the 
development of the spirit of cooperation is one of the 
fundamental purposes in many of the kindergarten ex- 
ercises. Mr. J. L. Hughes thus describes Froebel's 
initial effort: "Froebel's kindergarten was a little world 
where responsibility was shared by all, individual rights 
respected by all, brotherly sympathy developed by all, 
and voluntary cooperation practiced by all." 

The use of the child's actual relation to his playmates as 
a means of his social development is exactly in harmony 
with the selection of the materials of instruction — the 
curriculum — from the life about him, and with the organi- 
zation of method on the basis of his immediate volition. 
According to Froebel, education must begin on the child's 
level, and with the material, intellectual or social, that has 
already acquired a meaning to him. It must proceed by 
the exercise of the power or insight gained. In the 
social sense therefore, as well as in the intellectual, educa- 
tion is and must be, even from the beginning, a phase of 
life, not a preparation for it. 

Until the kindergarten came, the school was individual- 
istic, not social, in its tendencies. Competition between the 



250 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

children rather than cooperation with them was the rule. 
The value of cooperative effort as a means of developing the 
right spirit on the part of the children toward each other has 
been increasingly recognized in recent years. The coopera- 
tion of the members of a class, of grade with grade, or depart- 
ment with department for a common end is becoming an 
established feature in school work. Combined effort on the 
part of pupils has not only made possible the decoration of 
schoolrooms and the beautifying of school grounds, but it 
has brought about a different spirit among the children. 
Cooperative action, the principle of the kindergarten, is 
becoming the principle of the school. The school no less 
than the kindergarten is becoming a miniature society in 
which the laws of right conduct are learned by practice. 
"He that doeth shall know" is a great truth that is being 
increasingly recognized as the basis of educational pro- 
cedure. That the curriculum must be based on the child's 
present needs, that method must be founded on his own 
self-activity, and that the social virtues must be cultivated 
by practice, — these principles, Froebelian in origin but 
sanctioned by modern psychology, are bringing about the 
changes in the elementary schools. 

The doctrines enumerated were brought to bear upon 
the American school in many ways. They were impressed 
upon the teachers of the country with rare force and en- 
thusiasm by Colonel Francis W. Parker, even before the 
decade now under consideration. Colonel Parker em- 
bodied in himself the attitude toward childhood which the 
new education represents, and probably did more than any 



NEW TENDENCIES 25 1 

other single individual in the United States to bring about 
the acceptance of the doctrines in question and their 
application to the grades. Toward the latter part of the 
decade from 1890 to 1900 the views enumerated received 
a signal reenforcement in the educational philosophy 
of Dr. John Dewey. That philosophy has been expressed 
in many books and monographs and need not be dis- 
cussed here. The Herbartian movement also did much to 
bring about the acceptance of these views. Herbart, like 
Froebel, insisted upon organizing the curriculum upon the 
basis of the children's native interests and experiences. 
The effort to base the entire course of study upon the 
Culture Epoch theory is nothing less than an attempt to 
find material for instruction in the several grades, in har- 
mony with children's fundamental interests. The correla- 
tion of studies is nothing more than an attempt to use 
appropriate material in accordance with the laws of mental 
economy. The Herbartian doctrine as such does not 
accept the child's creative self-activity as the underlying 
principle of method, but in this particular respect American 
educators have taken issue with those doctrines. The 
elementary school owes much to the Herbartian move- 
ment. The addition of literature and history to the cur- 
riculum of the grades in a form adapted to the children's 
comprehension is largely the result of that movement. 
The more fundamental insight that American teachers 
have gained into the principles of the teaching process, 
is due in part to that movement likewise. The conviction 
that the ultimate aim of education is ethical and social 



252 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

rather than intellectual has been strengthened by that 
influence. Herbartianism has been one of the influences 
in the transformation of the school. That the doctrines 
of Froebel interpreted, modified, and universalized by 
modern psychology have exercised an influence more 
fundamental, however, is generally recognized. 

That the new psychology approved of the kindergarten 
in general although it objected to some aspects both of its 
theory and of its practice, has been elsewhere stated. 
With the growing incorporation of the kindergarten into 
the school these aspects began to attract attention. Had 
the kindergarten remained outside of the school system it 
might have remained uninfluenced by the movements 
that were shaping general education; its incorporation 
into that system made its modification inevitable. Until 
such incorporation became general the criticisms of the 
psychologist had not been brought to bear upon either 
kindergarten theory or practice with any force ; when the 
school superintendent became a factor in kindergarten 
procedure the situation changed. From his knowledge 
of psychology and educational theory in the larger sense, 
he could point out to the kindergartner the reasons for the 
criticisms which the customary kindergarten procedure 
had called forth, and from the standpoint of official 
authority he could insist upon such a modification of 
established procedure as the new views demanded. Dur- 
ing the latter part of the decade, therefore, the movement 
in the direction of kindergarten modification received 
a great impetus. When such modifications first began to 



NEW TENDENCIES 253 

appear, the kindergartners who had not themselves felt 
the pulse of the general educational movements considered 
them as nothing more than " a failure to understand Froe- 
bel." When the modifications became more general those 
advocating them were regarded as misguided individuals 
who had forsaken the true gods and effected an unholy 
alliance with the worshipers at other shrines. But as 
the differences between the old forms of kindergarten 
procedure and the new become more apparent the kinder- 
gartners of the country began to ally themselves either with 
those who approved of the changes in progress on the one 
hand or those who were opposed to them on the other. 
The ultimate result was the temporary division of the 
kindergartners of the country into conservatives and 
liberals, the former clinging to the established interpreta- 
tion of Froebelian doctrine and the mode of procedure 
that Froebel is supposed to have followed, and the latter 
accepting the interpretation that modern psychology 
and child study place upon it, and modifying the procedure 
on the basis of that interpretation. 

Although many kindergartners have not yet accepted the 
views for which the liberal kindergartners stand, the logic 
of events points to an ultimate acceptance of those views 
if the kindergarten is to become an organic part of the school 
system. The liberal kindergartner considers that psy- 
chology and child study are but elaborating the principles 
which Froebel himself recognized as clearly as the knowl- 
edge of his time would permit, and that the added insight 
of the present but furnished the means of perfecting the 



254 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

institution which he did not live to complete. She there- 
fore welcomes the light which modern science has thrown 
upon the development of the child's body, even though it 
may necessitate a reorganisation of the games which Froe- 
bel considered adequate for its development. She rec- 
ognizes the value of the idea upon which the system of 
gifts and occupations is based — that of carefully organ- 
ized impressions followed by adequate expression, but 
psychology has taught her that much of the customary 
work with both gifts and occupations requires an exact- 
ness injurious to undeveloped nerves and muscles. Her 
faith in creative self-activity as the fundamental article 
in the kindergarten creed has not been shaken, but she 
considers that much of the customary work with the 
gifts and occupations is not creative in the true sense. 
She accepts the Froebelian doctrine of the value of beauty 
in awakening the child's higher nature, but her study of 
art has shown her that the child's fundamental art in- 
terests lie along the line of representation, not along that 
of formal arrangement. She yields to no one in her belief 
that children may be prepared for the appreciation of 
spiritual truths early, but she can accept the kinder- 
garten doctrine of the symbol as a means to this end in its 
modern interpretation only. In these and many other 
respects the liberal kindergartner considers that there is 
opportunity for great improvement, both in the theory 
of the kindergarten and in its practice. In general she is 
willing to submit both to the test of modern educational 
insight, knowing that what is of true value will not be over- 
thrown. 



NEW TENDENCIES 255 

The kindergarten movement, like all other movements, 
has at different periods in its history needed a different 
service at the hands of its friends. During the period of. 
introduction the kindergarten itself and the educational 
doctrines which it embodies needed to be brought to the 
attention of the public; at a later period legislative and 
other action was needed to make possible its incorporation 
into the school system. These two purposes have been 
practically accomplished. The kindergarten is well and 
favorably known throughout the length and breadth of the 
land, and kindergartens may be established at public 
expense in the majority of the states in the Union. A 
third service is needed before the kindergarten can become 
an organic part of the school, however, — a service that the 
present age and generation must render. A new inter- 
pretation of the Froebelian gospel is needed, — an inter- 
pretation which will be in harmony with current educa- 
tional thought, and which will serve as the foundation for a 
practice free from the criticisms to which the customary 
practice has given rise. This need is expressed in the 
closing passage of Dr. John A. MacVannel's "Educational 
Theories of Herbart and Froebel." He says: "If Froe- 
bel's thought is to assist in the educational reconstruction 
as it should, it must itself be criticised and freed from 
certain imperfect forms in which it has become embodied. 
It must be modified or transformed in the light of truths 
brought forward by science and by the changed conditions 
in the Western world, — truths which it cannot afford to 
neglect. 'We live spiritually,' says Professor Royce, 



256 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

' by outliving our formulas and thus, enriching our sense 
of their deeper meaning.' The thought of Froebel or 
the thought to which the thought of Froebel has given birth 
must show itself capable of adaptation to the varied con- 
ditions of the novel social environment, the needs and 
aspirations of American life; it must be inclusive, not 
exclusive; it must show itself capable of reconciling its 
adherents within themselves, and of lifting their minds 
beyond the level of controversy; it must be self-assertive 
and yet self -critical, disowning the unquestioning attitude 
of the partisan. Then, and then only, can it win the 
triumphs for which Froebel hoped and labored, and for 
which his true disciples hope and labor in turn." 



APPENDIX 

References on Kindergarten Work in Representative 

Cities 
Alabama. 

Alabama Notes. Kn. Rev. Vol. XIII, p. 55. 

Birmingham Notes. Kn. Rev. Vol. IX, p. 397. 

California. 
Early Kindergarten Work in California. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, 

p. 250. 
The Educational Movement in California. Kn. Mag. Vol. 

V, p. 30. 
Notes from San Diego. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 234. 
The Kindergartens of Los Angeles. Kn. Mag. Vol. VI, p. 

Notes from Sacramento. Kn. Mag. Vol. VIII, p. 772. 
Four Weeks on the Pacific Coast. Kn. Mag. Vol. X, p. 640. 
Our Work in Los Angeles. Kn. Rev. Vol. VIII, p. 237. 
Notes from Oakland. Kn. Rev. Vol. IX, p. 121. 
The Way They do Things in Santa Barbara. Kn. Rev. 

Vol. X, p. 584. 
Report of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association. Kn. 

Rev. Vol. XVII, p. 569. 

Colorado. 
Denver Free Kindergarten Association. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, 
p. 639. 

s 257 



258 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Kindergarten Training in Colorado. Kn. Mag. Vol. VIII, 

P- 735- 
Notes on Colorado. Kn. Mag. Vol. VIII, p. 29. 
A Summer Kindergarten in Pueblo. Kn. Rev. Vol. IX, p. 

258. 
Notes from Pueblo. Kn. Rev. Vol. XI, p. 525. 
Out-of-door Work in Colorado Springs. Kn. Rev. Vol. 

XIV, p. 184. 
Denver Notes. Kn. Rev. Vol. IX, p. 329. 

Connecticut. 
Four Months' Progress in Kindergarten Work. Kn. Mag. 
Vol. XII, p. 396. 

District of Columbia. 

The Establishment of Public School Kindergartens in Wash- 
ington. Kn. Rev. Vol. IX, p. 200. Kn. Mag. Vol. XIV, 
p. 290. 

Private Work Leading to the Establishment of Public Kin- 
dergartens in Washington. Kn. Mag. Vol. XIV, p. 290. 

Kindergarten Appropriation for Washington. Kn. Mag. 
Vol. XII, p. 58. 

The Phcebe A. Hearst Kindergarten Work in Washington. 
Kn. Rev. Vol. XI, p. 558. 

Four Months of Progress in Kindergarten Work. Kn. 
Mag. Vol. XII, p. 452. 

Georgia. 
Atlanta Notes. Kn. Rev. Vol. IX, p. 461 ; Vol. XIII, p. 
427; Vol. XIV, p. 60. 



APPENDIX 259 

Eagle and Phoenix Mills Free Kindergarten. Kn. Rev. 

Vol. XV, p. 505. 
Notes from Savannah. Kn. Rev. Vol. XII, p. 55; Vol. 

XIII, p. 575- 

Notes from Macon. Kn. Rev. Vol. XII, p. 241. 
Struggles of an Association in the Southland. Kn. Rev. 
Vol. XV, p. 570. 

Illinois. 

The Evolution of the Kindergarten Idea in Chicago. Mrs. 

Putnam and the Froebel Association. Kn. Mag. Vol. 

V, p. 720. 
The Chicago Free Kindergarten Association. Kn. Mag. 

Vol. V, p. 734. 
Miss Harrison and the Chicago Kindergarten College. Kn. 

Mag. Vol. V, p. 729. 
Kindergarten Representation at the Columbian Exposition. 

Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 402. 
The Kindergarten at the Columbian Exposition. Kn. 

Mag. Vol. VI, p. 186. 
Review of Chicago Kindergartens. Pratt Institute Monthly, 

November, 1895. 
The Kindergarten in the Chicago Public School System, 

Kn. Mag. Vol. IX, p. 679. 
Chicago Public Kindergartens. Kn. Rev. Vol. X, p. 568*, 

Vol. XI, p. 485. 
The Keilhau of America. Kn. Mag. Vol. X, p. 619. 
Chicago Kindergarten Institute. Kn. Mag. Vol. XII, p. 

573- 
The Work of the Chicago Free Kindergarten Association. 
Kn. Mag. Vol. X, p. 509. 



260 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Kindergarten Work in the Chicago Ghetto. The Outlook, 

Vol. LVI, p. 212. 
The Galesburg Kindergarten Normal School. Kn. Mag. 

Vol. XI, p. 694. 
Notes from Moline. Kn. Rev. Vol. XI, p. 58. 
Report from Peoria. Kn. Rev. Vol. XV, p. 448. 

Indiana. 

Free Kindergarten Work in Indianapolis. Kn. Mag. Vol. 

XI, p. 305. 
The Kindergarten Movement in Indianapolis. Kn. Mag. 

Vol. XII, p. 440. 
The Indiana Normal Training School. Kn. Mag. Vol. 

XVI, p. 458- 
Kindergarten Work in Indianapolis. The Century, October, 

1897. 
Notes from Logansport. Kn. Rev. Vol. VIII, p. 546. 
Notes from Evansville. Kn. Rev. Vol. IX, p. 326. 

Iowa. 

Notes from Des Moines. Kn. Mag. Vol. VI, p. 577. 
Regarding Iowa Kindergartens. Kn. Mag. Vol. IX, p. 531. 
The Kindergarten in Des Moines. Kn. Mag. Vol. XII, p. 

328. 
Notes from State Normal School, Cedar Falls, Iowa. Kn. 

Rev. Vol. XVI, p. 126. 

Kansas. 

The Central Church Kindergarten, Topeka. Kn. Rev. 

Vol. VIII, p. 355. 
Notes from Topeka. Kn. Rev. Vol. X, p. 179. 



APPENDIX 26l 

Kentucky. 
Louisville Free Kindergartens. Kn. Mag. Vol. I, p. 281. 
A Glimpse of Louisville Kindergartens. Kn. Mag. Vol. 

II, P- 383- 
Notes from Louisville. Kn. Mag. Vol. VI, p. 827. 
Notes from Louisville. Kn. Rev. Vol. VIII, p. 444; Vol. 

XIII, p. 574; Vol. IX, p. 201 ; Vol. X, p. 176. 
Four Months' Progress in Kindergarten Work. Kn. Mag. 

Vol. XII, p. 393. 

Louisiana. 

The Kindergarten Outlook in New Orleans. Kn. Mag. 

Vol. X, pp. 227, 352. 
Notes from New Orleans. Kn. Rev. Vol. VII, p. 397, 445; 

Vol. IX, pp. 132, 398; Vol. XIII, p. 575. 

Maine. 
Notes from Bangor. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 310. 

Maryland. 
Four Months' Progress in Kindergarten Work. Kn. Mag. 
Vol. XII, p. 456. 

Massachusetts. 
Review of Boston Kindergartens. Pratt Institute Monthly, 

November 1895. 
The Kindergarten in Boston. Kn. Rev. Vol. XII, p. 474. 
Boston Day Nurseries. Kn. Rev. Vol. XII, p. 283. 
Mornings in Boston Kindergartens. Kn. Rev. Vol. XII, 

PP- 2 79> 35 2 , 43 2 - 
Four Months' Progress in Kindergarten Work. Kn. Mag. 
Vol. XII, p. 454. 



262 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Winchester and its Kindergartens. Kn. Rev. Vol. XI, p. 20. 
Notes from Worcester. Kn. Rev. Vol. IX, p. 655. 

Michigan. 
Notes from Grand Rapids Kindergarten Association. Kn. 

Mag. Vol. V, p. 459. 
Free Kindergarten Work in Detroit. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, 

p. 558; Vol. XI, p. 264. 
Autumn Work in a Detroit Kindergarten. Kn. Rev. Vol. 

XI, p. S 3 . 

Sense Training in Detroit Kindergartens. Kn. Rev. Vol. 

XII, pp. 186,218,264. 

Notes from Kalamazoo. Kn. Rev. Vol. VIII, p. 195. 
A Church Kindergarten. Kn. Mag. Vol. IX, p. 572. 
Notes from Saginaw. Kn. Rev. Vol. XIV, p. 58. 
Lucretia Willard Treat and Her Work. Kn. Mag. Vol. 
XIV, p. 482. 

Minnesota. 
Reports from St. Paul. Kn. Mag. Vol. II, pp. 257, 416; 

Vol. VI, p. 835. 
Reports from Minneapolis. Kn. Mag. Vol. VI, p. 834. 
Reports from Duluth. Kn. Mag. Vol. X, p. 297. 
Four Months' Progress in Kindergarten Work. Kn. Mag. 

Vol. XII, p. 459- 

Missouri. 

A Visit to St. Louis. Kn. Mag. Vol. I, p. 266. 
St. Louis Froebel Society. Kn. Mag. Vol. II, p. 57. 
St. Louis Kindergartens and Schools. Kn. Mag. Vol. VI, 
P- 373- 



APPENDIX 263 

A Review of St. Louis Kindergartens. Pratt Institute 

Monthly, November, 1895. 
Four Months' Progress in Kindergarten Work. Kansas 

City. Kn. Mag. Vol. XII, p. 392. 
Twenty-fifth Anniversary of St. Louis Kindergartens. Kn. 

Rev. Vol. VIII, p. 675. 
Notes from Kansas City. Kn. Rev. Vol. XII, p. 441 ; Vol. 

XV, p. 578. 

Montana. 
Notes from Helena. Kn. Rev. Vol. VIII, p. 399; Vol. XIV, 
p. 665. 

Nebraska. 

Notes from Lincoln. Kn. Mag. Vol. VI, p. 733. 

Four Months' Progress in Kindergarten Work. Kn. Mag. 

Vol. XII, p. 453- 
Notes from Omaha. Kn. Rev. Vol. VIII, p. 611. 

New Hampshire. 
Four Months' Progress in Kindergarten Work. Kn. Mag. 
Vol. XII, p. 459- 

New Jersey. 

The Kindergarten in Newark. Kn. Rev. Vol. VIII, p. 292. 
Notes from Morristown. Kn. Mag. Vol. VIII, p. 606. 
Notes from Jersey City. Kn. Rev. Vol. VIII, p. 330. 
Notes from Newark. Kn. Rev. Vol. XI, pp. 187, 316. 

New York. 

The Kindergarten in Rochester. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 850; 
Vol. XVI, p. 410. Kn. Rev. Vol. XIV, p. 841, 



264 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Brief History of the Kindergarten Movement in James- 
town. Kn. Mag. Vol. XII, p. 305. 

The Kindergarten in Buffalo. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 83. Kn 
Rev. Vol. IX, p. 132. 

The Kindergarten in Brooklyn. Kn. Rev. Vol. X, p 
462. 

Free Kindergartens in Brooklyn. Kn. Rev. Vol. XVII, p 

471. 
Public School Kindergartens of Brooklyn. Kn. Rev. Vol 

XVII, p. 478. 
Public Kindergartens in the Borough of Brooklyn. Kn 

Mag. Vol. XIX, p. 549. 
The New York Kindergarten Association. Kn. Mag. Vol 

XI, p. 105; Vol. XVI, p. 296; Vol. XIX, p. 574. Kn 

Rev. Vol. XIV, p. 391 ; Vol. XVII, p. 461. 
Public School Kindergarten in New York. Kn. Mag. Vol. 

XI, p. 105. Kn. Rev. Vol. XV, p. 178. 
Kindergarten Progress in the Public Schools of New York 

City. Kn. Rev. Vol. XVII, p. 468. 
History of the Kindergarten in the New York Public Schools. 

Kn. Mag. Vol. XIX, p. 484. 
Early Kindergarten Work in New York. Kn. Rev. Vol. 

XVII, p. 458. 
Settlements and Settlement Kindergartens in New York. 

Kn. Mag. Vol. XIX, p. 610. 
Review of New York Kindergartens. Pratt Institute 

Monthly, November, 1895. 
Kindergarten Department at Pratt Institute. Kn. Mag. 

Vol. VIII, p. 725. 
Kindergarten Training at Teachers College. Kn. Mag. 

Vol. XI, p. 574. 



APPENDIX 265 

Kindergarten Work in the Ethical Culture Schools. Kn. 

Mag. Vol. XI, p. 433. 
Kindergarten Training Schools in Greater New York. Kn. 
Mag. Vol. XIX. 

Adelphi College, p. 521. 
The Elliman School, p. 538. 
The Ethical Culture School, p. 511. 
Teachers College, p. 532. 
Kraus Seminary, p. 517. 
Miss Jennie Hunter's School, p. 578. 
The New York Froebel Normal, p. 540. 
Pratt Institute, p. 520. 
The Speyer School Experimental Playroom. Kn. Rev. Vol. 
XVII, p. 137. 

North Carolina. 
Notes from Ashville. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 234. 

Ohio. 
Notes from Youngstown. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 151. 
A Model Kindergarten Building. Kn. Mag. Vol. XV, p. 

215- 
Notes from Toledo. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 456. Kn. Rev. 

Vol. XI, p. 449. 
Notes from Columbus. Kn. Mag. Vol. VIII, p. 690. 
Four Months' Progress. Kn. Mag. Vol. XII, p. 398. 
The Cincinnati Kindergarten Association. Kn. Mag. Vol. 

XI, p. 362. 
Notes from Dayton. Kn. Rev. Vol. IV, pp. 261, 656. 
Notes from Cincinnati. Kn. Rev. Vol. XIII, p. 246. 
Notes from Cleveland. Kn. Rev. Vol. XIII, p. 381. 



266 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Oklahoma. 
A Kindergarten Training Course as a Department of a Uni- 
versity. Kn. Rev. Vol. XVII, p. 51. 

Oregon. 
Notes from Portland. Kn. Rev. Vol. XI, p. 516. 

Pennsylvania. 

Notes from Altoona. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 850. 

The Kindergarten Movement in Philadelphia. Kn. Rev. 
Vol. XV, p. 300. 

Review of Philadelphia Kindergartens. Pratt Institute 
Monthly, November, 1895. 

Free and Public Kindergartens of Philadelphia. Mono- 
graph by Mrs. Constance MacKenzie Durham. 

Philadelphia Girls Normal School. Kn. Mag. Vol. X, p. 
388. 

The Kindergarten in Pennsylvania. Kn. Mag. Vol. XV, 
p. 489. 

The Pittsburg and Allegheny Free Kindergarten Associa- 
tion. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 717; Vol. VII, p. 593; Vol. 
XI, p. 421. 

Work in Pittsburg. Kn. Rev. Vol. XIII, p. 455. 

Growth of the Kindergarten Movement in Scranton. Kn. 
Rev. Vol. XIV, p. 667. 

Notes from Erie. Kn. Rev. Vol. VIII, p. 331. 

South Carolina. 

Charleston and its Kindergartens. Kn. Rev. Vol. IX, p. 

253- 
Charleston from a Kindergarten Standpoint. Kn. Rev. 
Vol. X, p. 631. 



APPENDIX 267 

Notes from Charleston. Kn. Rev. Vol. XI, p. 57. 
Notes from Rock Hill. Kn. Rev. Vol. XI, p. 379. 

South Dakota. 
A Black Hills Kindergarten. Kn. Mag. Vol. XIV, p. 93. 

Tennessee. 
Notes from Chattanooga. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 716. 

Texas. 
Notes from Galveston. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 376. 
Notes from Fort Worth. Kn. Rev. Vol. IX, p. 72; Vol. 

XI, p. 447. 
Notes from Dallas. Kn. Rev. Vol. XIII, p. 446. 

Utah. 

Kindergarten Training in the University of Utah. Kn. 

Mag. Vol. XI, p. 216. 
Notes from Salt Lake City. Kn. Rev. Vol. XI, p. 250. 

Virginia. 
Notes from Richmond. Kn. Rev. Vol. XII, p. 179. 
Public School Kindergartens in Richmond. Kn. Rev. Vol. 
XV, p. 129. 

Washington. 

Notes from Tacoma. Kn. Mag. Vol. VIII, p. 529. 

Notes from Spokane. Kn. Rev. Vol. X, p. 117. 

Notes from Seattle. Kn. Rev. Vol. XIII, p. 247. 

Four Weeks in the Pacific Coast. Kn. Mag. Vol. XI, p. 30. 



268 THE KINDERGARTEN IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 

Wisconsin. 
Notes from Milwaukee. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 312; Vol. XI, 

p. 331. Kn. Rev. Vol. XV, p. 180; Vol. XVI, p. 337. 
Notes from Sheboygan. Kn. Mag. Vol. V, p. 717. 
Notes from Menomonie. Kn. Mag. Vol. VII, p. 552; Kn. 

Rev. Vol. XI, p. 315. 
Notes from Wisconsin. Kn. Rev. Vol. XIII, p. 120. 
The Kindergarten Movement in Wisconsin. Kn. Mag. 

Vol. XIV, p. 165. Kn. Rev. Vol. XVI, p. 400. 
The Kindergarten Movement in Milwaukee. Kn. Mag. 

Vol. XVIII, p. 385. 
Milwaukee a Kindergarten City. Kn. Rev. Vol. XVI, p. 

387- 
The Public School Kindergartens of Milwaukee. Kn. 

Mag. Vol. XVIII, p. 460. 
Milwaukee Mission Kindergartens. Kn. Mag. Vol. XVIII, 

p. 462. 

Canada. 
The Kindergarten in Ottawa. Kn. Mag. Vol. Ill, p. 150. 
The Establishment and Growth of the Kindergarten in 

Ottawa. Kn. Rev. Vol. XVII, p. 497. 
The Kindergarten in Canada. Kn. Mag. Vol. XVII, p. 

325- 
The Kindergarten in Canada, Toronto. Kn. Mag. Vol. 

XVII, p. 495. 
The Kindergarten in Canada. Kn. Rev. Vol. XV, p. 463. 



INDEX 



[For references to cities see Appendix.] 



Abbott, Jacob, 161. 

Addams, Jane, no, in. 

Adler, Felix, 18. 

^Esthetic element in education, 43, 49, 
50, 51, 129. 

Africa, kindergartens in, 91, 92. 

Alcoit, Bronson, 16. 

Aldrich, Mrs., 172. 

Allen, Edward L., 203, 204, 205. 

Allen, Louis H., 180. 

American Journal of Education, see 
Barnard, Henry. 

Anderson, Clara L., 78, 79, 176, 195, 
196, 200, 202. 

Andrews, E. Benjamin, 39 (quoted). 

Art education : beginnings of, 5, 6, 7 ; 
stimulus of Philadelphia Exposition 
to, 6, 7, 38, 39, 40; introduction 
into elementary curriculum, 211, 
212, 214, 219, 246; kindergarten 
influence upon, 50, 219, 220, 231, 
248. 

Art : in American life, 3, 39 ; museums, 
galleries, and schools, 40, 41. 

Associations, see Kindergarten Asso- 
ciations. 

Australasia, kindergartens in, 91. 

Baker, George A., 22. 

Baldwin, George J., 123. 

Barnard, Henry, 14, 15, 27, 29, 159, 

161-163. 
Barnes, Earl, 126, 154. 
Bartiett, Nellie S., 94-96. 
Baum, Rosemary, 157. 
Beard, Frederica, 167, 170. 
Beebe, Katharine, 167. 
Benefactions to kindergarten cause, 

68-70. 
Bigham, Madge, 178. 



Biological sciences, 39, 49, 233. 

Birney, Mrs. Theodore, 173. 

Blake, Henry W., 180. 

Blaker, Mrs. Eliza A., 66. 

Blatchford, Mrs. E. W., 97. 

Blind, kindergarten instruction for, 
201, 203, 204. 

Blow, Susan E. : and St. Louis schools, 
18, 20; 16, 185 (quoted); 163, 
167, 168, 171-174. 

Boelte, Maria, 17, 20. 

Boone, Richard G., 34 (quoted). 

Bowen, H. Courthope, 167. 

Bowman, Mrs. T. E., 83. 

Bradley, Milton, 34, 180. 

Brooks, Angeline, 135, 153. 

Brown, Emerson and, 176. 

Bryan, Anna E., 153. 

Bureau of Education, see Commis- 
sioner of Education. 

Burk, Frederick, 168, 172. 

Burma, kindergartens in, 92. 

Burritt, Ruth, 18. 

Business firms, kindergartens sup- 
ported by, 112, 114, 116, 117, 122, 
124. 

Butler, Nicholas Murray, 203, 206 
(quoted). 

Calkins, N. A., 161. 

Cannell, Maud, 168. 

Ceylon, kindergartens in, 92. 

Charity, see Benefactions, and Phi- 
lanthropy. 

Chautauqua, kindergarten instruc- 
tion at, 140-144. 

Chenery, Susan, 177. 

Cheney, Mrs. Edna D., 15. 

Chicago Exposition, influence upon 
education of, 193, 194, 198, 246. 



269 



270 



INDEX 



Child study movement : origin of, 235- 
237; spread of, 237-239; effects 
of, on kindergarten, 8, 243; effect 
on elementary education, 212-216, 
246. 

Children's clubs, see Settiements. 

Children's literature, 228, 229, 230, 
242, 251. 

China, kindergartens in, 93. 

Christian Examiner, 15, 27. 

Chubb, Percival, 157. 

Church: changes in doctrine of, 9, 25, 
26, 43, 44, 45. S I > 5 2 ; kindergarten 
adoption by, 76, 77, 81; kinder- 
gartens supported by, 78, 79; 
value of kindergarten to, 82-85, 
99; auxiliaries of, and kinder- 
garten promotion, 79-81. 

Civil War, 4, 9, 25, 39, 160. 

Clarke, Isaac, 40 (quoted). 

Cleveland, Mrs. Grover, 70. 

Clubs, see Women's Clubs. 

Color, use of, in art education, 213, 
219, 220. 

Commissioner of Education, 11, 19, 
29, 58, 66, 78, 185, 194, 196; see 
also Barnard, Henry, and Harris, 
William T. 

Compayre, Gabriel, 162. 

Congress of Mothers, 59, 156. 

Cooper, Mrs. Sarah B., 66-68, 77, 
135. 136, i5 2 , I 54- 

Corwin, Dr. Richard W., 1 18-122. 

Crane, Rev. Caroline Bartlett, 85. 

Crosby, Mary, 147. 

Crouse, Mrs. J. N., 90, 154. 

Current Literature, 45. 

Deaf mutes, kindergarten instruction 

for, 201, 203. 
De Garmo, Charles, 240. 
Dependent children, kindergartens in 

homes for, 201, 202. 
Dewey, John, 251. 
Dexter, Edwin Grant, 144, 203, 205 

(quoted). 
Dickens, Charles, 27. 
Dickinson, J. W., 22. 
Doerflinger, Carl H., 32. 
Douai, Adolph, 13, 22, 30, 36. 



Dramatic expression in primary 

grades, 223, 224. 
Du Bois, Patterson, 173. 
Dwight, Fanny L., 31. 

Earle, E. Lyell, 179. 

Education: a college study, 49, 184, 
234, 235, 238; physical, 222, 223, 
231; moral, 43, 51; religious, 43, 
51, 77, 86, 87, 143, 144; psycho- 
logical conception of, 3-5, 9, 49, 
160, 232, 233. 

Educational Congresses, 147, 152- 

i57. 

Educational literature, 34, 159, 162, 
182. 

Educational periodicals, see Barnard, 
Henry, Hailman, W. N., Hall, G. 
Stanley, and Kindergarten peri- 
odicals. 

Elementary school, see Primary school. 

Emerson and Brown, 176. 

Endowed kindergartens, see Bene- 
factions, and Philanthropy. 

England, and kindergarten move- 
ment, 6, 14, 27. 

Exhibits, of kindergarten work, see 
N. E. A., I.jK. U., and Exposi- 
tions. 

Expositions, kindergarten represen- 
tation at: Philadelphia, 18; New 
Orleans, 147; Chicago, 148-151, 
193; Atlanta, 155, 156; Omaha, 
156; Buffalo, 157; St. Louis, 157, 
158. 

Factories, kindergartens supported 
by, see Business firms, and Welfare 
work. 

Federation of Women's Clubs, see 
Women's Clubs. 

Feeble-minded, kindergarten instruc- 
tion for, 201, 205, 206. 

Fisher, Laura, 19, 66, 69 (quoted). 

Form study, in art education, 213, 
219, 220. 

Foster, Mary C, 167. 

Frankenberg, Caroline Louise, 13. 

Franks, Fanny, 164. 

Froebel, Froebelian doctrines, Froe- 



INDEX 



271 



belian influence, 2, 4, 8, 9, 11, 14- 
16, 24, 26, 27, 32, 33, 36, 52, 58, 
74, 163-166, 172, 185, 192, 215, 
220, 230, 243, 244. 

Games in primary school, 221-223. 

Gardens, school, 226. 

Gaynor, Mrs. Jessie L., 176. 

German influence in American educa- 
tion, 12, 13, 14. 

Gilbert, Charles B., 208. 

Gilman, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins, 175. 

"Goldammer's Manual," 163. 

Golden Gate Kindergarten Associa- 
tion, see Mrs. Cooper. 

Gordon, Dr., 99 (quoted). 

Grabill, Mrs. Margaret, 120. 

Graef, Virginia, 157. 

Greene, Mrs. E. G., 105. 

Gregory, Jeannette R., 167. 

Grinnell, Elizabeth, 174. 

Gymnastics, see Education. 

Hailman, Mrs. Eudora L., 14, 22, 

145, i53, 154, 176.- 
Hailman, William N., 13, 17, 21-23, 

3o-33, 36, 131, 145, 152, 154, i57, 
161, 163, 166, 186, 206, 218. 

Haines, Henrietta B., 17. 

Hall, G. Stanley, 8, 234, 235, 237. 

Hancock, John, 22. 

Harding, Mary B., 93. 

Harris, William T., 20-23, 34> 7$, 79, 
153, 186, 192, 195; see also Com- 
missioner of Education. 

Harrison, Elizabeth, 154, 166, 168, 
169, 174, 177, 226. 

Hart, Caroline M. C, 66, 156. 

Haven, Caroline T., 136. 

Hawaiian Islands, kindergartens in, 9 1 . 

Hearst, Mrs. Phcebe A., 67, 70. 

Heineman, A. H., 163. 

Henrotin, Mrs. Ellen M., 72. 

Herbart, Herbartian movement, Her- 
bartian influence, 212, 214, 216, 
228, 229, 233, 239, 240, 241, 242, 
250. 

Hicks, Mary Dana, 153. 

Hill, Patty S., 66, 176. 

Hill, Mary D., 155, 176. 



Hill, S. H, 68. 

Hofer, Andrea, 179; see Mrs. Proud- 
foot. 

Hofer, Amalie, 136, 138, 150, 156, 
172, 179. 

Hofer, Mari Ruef, 176, 177. 

Hogan, Mrs. Louise, 173. 

Holbrook, Dr. M. L., 28. 

Holman, Minnie, 155. 

Hopkins, Mrs. Louise Parsons, 153. 

Howe, Annie L., 96-100, 153. 

Howe, E. G., 153. 

Howliston, Miss, 177. 

Hubbard, Mrs. Clara Beeson, 176. 

Hughes, Mrs. Ada Marean, 134, 135, 
152. 

Hughes, James L., 27, 249 (quoted), 
i53, 167, 171. 

Idealistic philosophy, 2, 16, 25, 26, 52. 

India, kindergartens in, 92, 93. 

Indian schools, kindergartens in, 206, 
207. 

Industrial education: beginnings of 
manual training, 5, 6, 7; introduc- 
tion of, into elementary curriculum, 
38, 157, 211, 214, 216, 219, 246, 248. 

International Education Series, 162, 
163, 164. 

International Kindergarten Union : 
predecessors of, 137; formation of, 
134-136; growth of, 137-139; 
services to kindergarten cause, 139- 
140. 

Isham, Samuel, 41 (quoted). 

James, William, 8, 234. 

Japan, kindergarten work in, 96-101. 

Jarvis, Josephine, 31, 163, 164. 

Jenks and Rust, 176. 

Jenks and Walker, 176. 

Johnson, Fanny L., 69. 

Johnston, Bertha, 179. 

Johonnot, James, 162. 

Jorgenson, Ketchum and, 177. 

Jourdan, Minerva, 179. 

Judson, Rev. Edward, 81, 82. 

Kebler, Mrs. J. A., 116. 
Ketchum and Jorgenson, 177. 



272 



INDEX 



Kindergarten Associations: organiza- 
tion of, 56-58; purposes of, 56, 58; 
work of, 59, 61-63; results of, 59, 
60, 61. 

Kindergarten legislation in the differ- 
ent states, 187-189, 192, 193, 197- 
199. 

Kindergarten literature: beginnings 
of, 27, 31, 35, 36; progress of, 159, 
162-174. 

Kindergarten Literature Company, 
150, 179, 181. 

Kindergarten periodicals : Child Gar- 
den, 178, 179; Kindergarten Maga- 
zine, 1 78-1 81; Kindergarten Mes- 
senger, 31-33, 36, 179; Kindergarten 
News, 180; Kindergarten Review, 
32, 69, 178-181, 217; New Edu- 
cation, 32, 33, 166, 179. 

Kindergartens in the public schools: 
experiment in St. Louis, 20, 21; 
extension of movement from 1880- 
1890, 184, 190, 191; from 1890 to 
present, 192-196. 

Kindergarten training : beginnings of, 
17, 20, 22; association training 
schools, 64, 65, 201 ; private training 
schools, 65, 200, 201; kindergarten 
training departments in public nor- 
mal schools, 191, 192, 199, 200. 

King's Daughters and kindergarten 
promotion, 79. 

Kraus, John, 17, 22, 29, 30. 

Kraus-Boelte, Mrs. Maria, 17, 22, 23, 

3°, 3 1 . 36. 
Kriege, Matilda, 17, 30, 35. 
Kriisi, 161. 

Ladd, George T., 233. 
Laws, Annie, 72, 135. 
Legislation, kindergarten, see Kinder- 
garten legislation. 
Lewis, Dr. Dio, 28. 
Lindsay, Maud, 178. 
Logan, Miss, 92. 
Logan, Rev. Robert, 92. 
Lord, Misses, 163. 

McCulloch, Mary C, 135, 136, 154. 
McDowell, Mary E., 106. 



Mackenzie, Constance, 61-63 
(quoted), 153, 154. 

McMurry, Charles, 240. 

McMurry, Franks 240. 

MacVannel, John A., 255 (quoted). 

Mann, Horace, 16. 

Mann, Mrs. Mary, 28, 30. 

Mann, Mrs. Louisa, 70. 

Manual training, see Industrial 
education. 

Marwedel, Emma, 17, 166. 

Mason, Lowell, 41. 

Mathews, W. S. B., 42 (quoted). 

Mexico, kindergartens in, 91. 

Meyer, Bertha, 31, 36. 

Meyer, Margaretha, 14, 15; see Mrs. 
Schurz. 

Michaelis, Emelie, 163, 164. 

Micronesia, kindergartens in, 92. 

Milburn, John G., 157. 

Missions, kindergartens as an agency 
in: in cities, 19, 23, 58, 60-63, 67, 
68, 77-82 ; among alien peoples, 87, 
90, 91; in foreign fields, 88-102. 

Monroe, Paul, 248 (quoted). 

Montgomery, B. E., 90. 

Moore, H. Keatley, 163, 164. 

Moral education, see Education. 

Morley, Margaret, 164. 

Mosher, Mrs. Martha, 173. 

Mother-play book, 31, 36, 163, 164, 
167; 100. 

Mothers' classes, 59, 60, 142, 143, 168, 
208. 

Murray, May, 180. 

Music: development of, in United 
States, 41-43 ; introduction into ele- 
mentary curriculum, 40, 50, 213; 
methods of teaching, influenced by 
kindergarten, 50, 51, i74~i77» 2I 3, 
221-222. 

National Council of Women, 137. 

National Educational Association : 
organization of, 22, 23, 130; crea- 
tion of kindergarten department, 
130, 131; organization of I. K. U. 
at Saratoga meeting of, 133-136; 
value to kindergarten movement of, 
34, 13*1 J 3 2 » *37> i9 2 - 



INDEX 



273 



Nature study movement : beginnings 
of, 214; influence of kindergarten 
upon, 224-228, 231, 246, 248. 

Neidlinger, W. H., 176. 

Newton, Frances, 156. 

Newton, Rev. R. Heber, 77, 83. 

Normal schools: creation of kinder- 
garten departments in, 21, 22, 191, 
192; influence upon kindergarten 
movement of, 65, 192, 200. 

Object lessons, 160, 161. 
Ogden, Mrs. Anna, 147. 
Oswego Normal School, influence of, 
5, 160. 

Page, David, 160. 

Page, Mrs. Mary B., 157. 

Painting, see Art in American life. 

Paris Exposition, 6, 30. 

Parker, Col. Francis W., 157, 162, 
186, 192, 218, 250. 

Parsons, Anna Q. T., 15. 

Patterson, J. H., 114-116. 

Payne, Joseph, 162. 

Payne, William H., 162. 

Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer, 12-16, 
27, 28, 31, 32, 35, 72, 137, 166. 

Pestalozzi, 5, 160, 215. 

Philadelphia Exposition, influence 
upon education of, 6, 7, 9, 18, 19, 
23, 37, 4i, 57, 78. 

Philanthropy : increasing need of, in 
cities, 19, 46-48, 60, 61; organiza- 
tion of agencies for, 46, 47, 53, 54; 
the kindergarten as a philanthropic 
agency, 19, 23, 58, 60-63, 67, 68. 

Philippines, kindergartens in, 196, 197. 

Philosophy, see Idealistic philosophy. 

Pierson, Clara Dillingham, 178. 

Pingree, Laliah, 69, 136. 

Playgrounds, establishment of, 48, 54, 
no, 114, 177, 247. 

Pollock, Mrs. Louise, 13, 28, 30, 35. 

Pollock, Susan, 17, 31, 36, 166. 

Posse, Baron Nils, 153. 

Poulsson, Emelie, 32, 168, 176, 177, 
180. 

Poulsson, Laura, 180. 

Prang system, 220, 221. 



Preyer, William, 116, 235. 

Primary school : the history of, 3, 4, 
212, 213, 215, 216; kindergarten 
influence upon, 50-54, 174, 178, 
186, 210, 211, 216-231. 

Private kindergartens, 13, 195, 214. 

Proudfoot, Mrs. Andrea Hofer, 167, 
174, 179- 

Psychological conception of educa- 
tion, see Education. 

Psychology, the new, 8, 184, 214, 216, 
232-235, 243-245. 

Putnam, Mrs. Alice H., 18, 60, 66, 
112, 154. 

Ralph, Julian, 101 (quoted). 
Ramabai, Pundita, 93. 
Rein, William, 239. 
Religion, changes in, see Church. 
Religious education, see Education. 
Renaissance, educational, 39. 
Ronge, Bertha, 14, 28, 35. 
Rousseau, 162. 
Rozenkranz, 162. 

Salaries of kindergartners, 126. 

Saunders, Miss, 95. 

Schurz, Mrs. Carl, 13-16; see also 
Meyer, Margaretha. 

Science teaching: in colleges, 224; 
in secondary schools, 225; in ele- 
mentary schools, 225; the new 
psychology a result of, 233; see 
also Nature study movement. 

Seaver, Superintendent, 185 (quoted). 

Settlements: similarity of kinder- 
garten association to, 63, 107; 
methods of kindergarten akin to, 
108; kindergarten as a feature in, 
in, 112; value to kindergarten of 
adoption by, 109, no. 

Shaw, Mrs. Pauline Agassiz (Mrs. 
Quincy A.), 68, 69, 191. 

Sheldon, E. A., 5, 160. 

Sheldon, Rev. Charles E., 83-85. 

Sheldon, William E., 136. 

Smith, Eleanor, 10 1, 176. 

Smith, Kate Douglas, 66. 

Smith, Nora A., 67, 167-169, 174, 
177. 



274 



INDEX 



Snider, Denton J., 167, 168, 172. 

Social movement, the : beginnings of, 
44-46, 61, 63; bearing upon edu- 
cation, 52-54. 

Sociology, introduction into colleges, 
39. 46. 

Song teaching, see Music. 

South America, kindergartens in, 91. 

Southern Educational Association, 
organization of kindergarten de- 
partment of, 133. 

Spencer, Herbert, 23, 32. 

Stanford, Mrs. Leland, 67, 71. 

Steiger, E., 34, 35- 

Stewart, Sarah A., 134-136, 138, 154. 

Stockharn, Mrs. Alice, 179. 

Stockham, Cora S., 179. 

Story, the : a feature in kindergarten, 
174-178; adoption by primary 
school, 214, 228^-230. 

Stoy, 239. 

Strong, Rev. Josiah, 45, 78 (quoted). 

Summer schools, a means of prop- 
agating kindergarten doctrines, 
140-146. 

Sunday school, the, 77, 82, 86, 87, 
143, i44, i7°- 

Supplementary reading, see Children's 
literature. 

Symbolism, 254. 

Temperance work, a means of 
kindergarten propagation, 103-107. 
Theology, the new, 9; see Church. 
Tomlins, William L., 152. 
Treat, Mrs. Lucretia Willard, 181. 
Turkey, kindergartens in, 94-96. 



Vacation schools, 48, 54, 247. 

Van Kirk, Mrs., 177. 

Von Buelow-Wendhausen, Baroness, 

139, 164. 
VonMarenholz-Buelow, Baroness, 14, 

27, 28, 30, 35, 164, 165. 
Vreeland, Herbert, 113 (quoted). 

Waldo, Eveline A., 196. 

Walker, John Brisben, 173 (quoted). 

Washburne, Mrs. Marion Foster, 153. 

Washington, Mrs. Booker T., 73. 

Welfare work, the kindergarten a 
feature in, 1 12-124. 

Wheelock, Lucy, 135, 153, 163. 

White, E. E., 162. 

Whitmore, Eva B., 136. 

Wickersham, J. P., 161. 

Wiebe, Edward, 30, 35. 

Wiggin, Kate Douglas, 66, 67, 166, 
167, 169, 176, 177. 

Wilson, Mabel, 167. 

Wilson, Woodrow, 7 (quoted). 

Wiltse, Sara E., 177. 

Winship, A. E., 160 (quoted). 

Winterburn, Mrs. Florence Hull, 173. 

Wise, Margaret E., 168. 

Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union, see Temperance. 

Woman's Clubs, propagation of kin- 
dergarten movement by, 71-75. 

Young Women's Christian Associa- 
tion, kindergartens supported by, 
79- 

Ziller, 239. 



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